The Coolest Thing To Happen
by Teen Tyrant
Summary: A crossover between Teen Titans and DragonBall Z. Starfire is stranded in the Z world, 4 months after meeting Trunks, Goten and Marron for the first time. Read how the Saiyans met the Titans. A little bit of a love story is woven in as well. Please review
1. Title page

**The Coolest Thing To Happen- The Teen Titans/DragonBall Z Crossover**

**By**

**Teen Tyrant

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**

**Saiyans and Titans Meet...**

**Attempting to break free of the confines of Hell, the evil Frieza has shattered a dimesional boundary, tearing open a portal leading to another reality. Escaping from Hell, Frieza goes through this portal and winds up in the universe of the Teen Titans. Titan member Starfire is flung through to the other side of the portal, just as it closes, cutting her off from her team. **

**Realizing that in this world, brains are needed more than brawn, Frieza joins his might with the genius of criminal mastermind, Slade. Together, the two prepare to conquer everything in their path. With Starfire gone and Robin captured by this unholy alliance of evil, the remaining Titans are left uncertain as to a course of action.**

**But in the universe of DragonBall Z, Starfire has met three very special kids: 11-year-old Trunks, 10-year-old Goten, and 9-year-old Marron, these three are the children of the Z-warriors. With their parents away, the three kids decide that its up to them to help Starfire get home. Reopening the portal and traveling with Starfire back to her home dimension, the kids team up with the Titans, adding their own immense powers to those of the teenage heroes.**

**Now the Titans and the young Z-warriors must face down their greatest enemies. Determined to rescue Robin and send Frieza back to the Hell that he belongs in, Jump City is about to be caught in the middle of the greatest inter-dimensional battle ever fought. The teens and the three youngsters at their sides cannot afford to fail.**

**But battling Frieza and Slade is only the beginning of their problems. The situation becomes even more complicated, when it is revealed that a certain young Z-warrior has developed special feelings for a certain Titan...**

**Teen Tyrant is proud to bring you, The Coolest Thing To Happen - The Teen Titans/DragonBall Z crossover!

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**

This story, as you can tell, is the combining of two of my favorite franchises into one. The inspiration for this actually came from a crossover story of ReBoot and The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, called Power Surd: the First Siege of Mainframe, authored by RoeBoot. The story was so intriguing, that I decided to follow its example with a crossover of Teen Titans and DBZ following the same formula. No, I am not plagerizing. I have permission from Roeboot to use her story's formula for the foundation of this one.

This story will have some mild profanity, but only from the DBZ characters. The Teen Titans characters do not swear in any version of the show, while DBZ characters swear in the pure, unedited version. The strongest word you'll find in this story, however, might be the use of the word "bastard" at some point. I don't know for sure yet, but it might be in here once. That's the most extreme that this story will get though.

Could someone reading this please let me know how I can get this story over into the DragonBall Z section of the site without submitting the same story twice. Is it possible to do that? If so, how do I do it? Please PM me and let me know.

**Timeframe and Ages:**

In the Teen Titans timeframe, this story originally was going to take place between whichever season the reader chooses. However, I've decided to alter that and make this story take place after season 5. Unfortunately, where this story goes means that it must ignore the events of Trouble In Tokyo. Sorry Tokyo fans, but for this tale, you need to skip it. The ages in the show are different than the ages in the comics, so that's no help, but I don't think that the Titans have aged very much from season 1 to season 5. Frankly, I don't think the whole series could have taken place in more than a year and a half at the most. I like to base the ages off of what Robin and Starfire would be. I think they are probably 15, but they may be 16 by the time of season 5. So here's where I'll ballpark the ages of the Titans for this story:

Robin: 15

Starfire: 15

Raven: 14

Beast Boy: 13

Cyborg: 17

That's the Teen Titans info you need.

DragonBall Z on the other hand is a little bit more definite. In the DBZ world, this story takes place 3 years after the battle against Majin Buu, or around the time of Movie #13, whichever you prefer. Based on that, the ages of Trunks, Goten, and Marron, as listed in the summary above, are 11, 10, and 9.

I know that a lot of people think that Marron would only be 6 by this time, so let me explain. Marron's age is never given in the series at any point. It is said that she is 3 years old during the Majin Buu saga, but we don't know that for sure, as that info was supplied _after_ the fact. Since I don't think Krillin and #18 would have wasted anytime getting married and having a child, I think it's possible that Marron could have been born no more than a year after Goten. So by the time of Majin Buu, she's actually 6. She seems younger because she is so short, a trait passed on to her by her midget father. She has lived on an island her whole life and has been babied and sheltered, so her speaking capabilities were not what they could have been for a 6-year-old, as I have seen happen to kids in my own neighborhood who were babied too long and not taught correctly.

Technically, since it has never been _truly official_, it is possible that Marron is only a year younger than Goten and two years younger than Trunks. Based on that theory, I have made her age 9 for this fic, so that she is able to fit alongside them in a much more believable way. For all we know, it's accurate. She has also finally been taught correctly, as well as received training from her parents, so she is capable of fighting now, which she will do in this story.

Now that all that has been cleared up, I give you the Teen Titans/DBZ Crossover! So power up to Super Saiyan. Teen Titans Go!


	2. Prologue

**The Coolest Thing To Happen: **

**The Teen Titans/DragonBall Z Crossover**

**By **

**Teen Tyrant**

Dedicated to all fans of Teen Titans and DragonBall Z. Thanks to Roeboot for letting me use her story as a foundation for my own.

Disclaimer: Teen Titans and DragonBall Z do not belong to me. If they did, there would be some major improvments. Not that there is anything wrong with them now, but I know of a few changes that would significantly boost their already phenomenal ratings.

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**Prologue**

"Titans, Go!" With that shout, the five teenage superheroes sprang into action.

It was the middle of the day in Jump City, in the center of town. The greatest criminal in the city had sent his latest invasion of forces to destroy the city's protectors. All the people in the area had already run for shelter, knowing that these battles always ended in great destruction. They had become so common over the last couple of months that the citizens were beginning to become accustomed to them.

Facing the army of super robots marching down the middle of the street, each hero picked a target and began to attack.

Robin extended his staff and began to swipe away at one of the robots. The staff banged on its metal hide, but did not do any damage to it. Raising its large metal fist, the ten-foot tall black and copper robot swung down at the Boy Wonder, who managed to leap out of the way just before the fist slammed into the ground, breaking through the asphalt.

Robin landed on the hood of a car that had stopped at the street light, its occupants having abandoned it at the first sign of the army of robots. Looking at the result of the robot's attack, Robin gauged its strength to be roughly twenty times that of the ordinary kind of bot that they usually fought.

"Great. This is going to be fun." This of course was a sarcastic remark; this would be anything but fun.

Cyborg aimed his sonic cannon at the robot he faced and fired. The powerful combination of energy and sound waves slammed into the robot's chest, making it rock back on its metal feet. Cyborg ceased his attack, but the robot, instead of falling down, simply regained its balance. The robot opened its hand and faced its palm at Cyborg. With the sensors in his artificial eye, the cybernetic teenager knew that the robot was about to fire a blast of energy at him.

As he predicted, a stream of golden, superheated energy shot from a hole in the robot's palm. Using his own enhanced reflexes, Cyborg ducked to the side before the beam hit him. The beam continued on its way until it struck a parked car. The vehicle exploded into flames instantly.

Using the momentum from his dive away from danger, Cyborg rolled on the ground, hopped back up, then ran right up to the massive robot. Leaping into the air, he punched the robot right in its black and copper face with all his enhanced strength. The robot's face, split down the middle by its colors like the mask of the man who had created it, and it folded in. A crunching sound was heard from inside the robot's head.

Dropping to the ground and backing up a bit, Cyborg watched as the robot staggered on its feet, then finally called it quits and fell on its back, its programming fried.

Cyborg pumped his fist in the air. "Boo-yah!" he shouted in victory. But he knew better than to get cocky; there were plenty more of those bad boys around to deal with.

Raven focused her power, her eyes glowing white, her hands held out in the air.

"Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos!" she chanted, flinging her hands forward. Immediately, a robot was surrounded with a black energy substance which acted like a solid material. The robot was lifted into the air and thrown back, where it slammed into two more of its brethren. As Raven watched, the robots regained their footing and stood up again, a little dinged, but still very combat effective.

Cyborg shouted over to her. "Hey Raven! Hit them in the face next time! It's their weak point!" Raven nodded in understanding.

"I'll do that!" she shouted over to him.

Beast Boy stood his ground against one of Slade's super robots that was speeding up and coming straight for him.

"Come on, I'm ready to rumble!" the green skinned boy challenged the machine. When the robot came close enough, Beast Boy transformed into a green triceratops. Snorting, the dinosaur charged forward and slammed the two horns growing from its forehead into the robot's abdominal area. The horns pierced through the metal and exited the other side.

Beast Boy shook his dino head, trying to dislodge the machine from his horns, but the robot stayed fastened to his skull. Raising its metal arm, the robot smashed its fist into the dinosaur's head, causing Beast Boy to change back to normal and drop to his knees.

Holding his pounding head, Beast Boy looked up to see the huge black robot raise its fist again, about to bring it down on him.

"Umm…" Seeing it about to strike, Beast Boy turned into a large green gorilla. Bringing up a hand, he stopped the robot's punch… barely. The robot raised its other arm and tried to punch him again. Again he stopped it and kept both of its arms at bay. He tried to push its arms back at it, but Slade had made these things a lot stronger than his old style of robot. He'd had a great influence to design them on, after all. Beast Boy could barely hold its arms back, much less throw the metal creature away from him.

Flying above this battle scene, Starfire charged her starbolts, prepared to start hurling them at the robots attacking her friends. Seeing that Robin was having the most difficulty with his opponent, she targeted the robot he was fighting, deciding to destroy that one first.

Before she could fire a shot, three new robots jumped up into the air from behind the small army of robots on the ground. These ones were special. They were coated with the strongest armor Slade had at his disposal. They possessed incredible strength, specifically calibrated to counter Starfire's own Tamaranian might. They could also fly via the anti-gravity generators built into their bodies. In addition to all that, they came equipped with powerful electrostatic blasters that functioned by pulling electrons right out of the air, then focusing and magnifying them significantly.

"Arrraagh!" Starfire screamed in righteous fury as she flew at the robots and began to do battle with them. Punching one right in the face, Starfire felt the pain travel up her arm. It felt like punching a building!

"Ouch!" she yelped in surprise at the toughness of her opponents.

The three robots proceeded to throw punch after punch at the beautiful alien, and Starfire could barely dodge, their attacks were so fast. Twisting and turning in the air, Starfire managed to make her way below one of the robots. She quickly grabbed its leg and slammed it into another robot, knocking them both away for a moment as she thrust out her right leg and kicked the third robot in the stomach.

A loud clang reverberated through the air as Starfire's attack all but bounced off of the huge robot. Clutching her sore leg, Starfire backed away, flying a little higher to get away from her metal attackers.

The robots regrouped and looked up to her. Raising their hands to her, their palms began to glow a light blue color. The air took on a shimmering quality as the electrons were pulled from it and concentrated into the hands of the three robots. But gathering energy in their hands wasn't the only effect the pull of electrons from the air had. An unforeseen effect was triggered by it as well. Little did Starfire know that in the air above her head, a large portion of the sky began to swirl.

Their energy charges reaching their peak, the three robots fired their beams as one directly at Starfire.

"Eep!" Starfire squealed, a sound which would have been adorably cute at any point other than a life-threatening situation such as this. Starfire dove out of the path of the beams just in time. She felt the superheated blasts of electrical heat cut the air around her.

Starfire turned and watched the blasts travel higher into the air, and she finally noticed the swirling effect on the sky. When the beams reached that point of the sky, there was an eruption of light that could be seen from any point in Jump City. Starfire watched in awe as the swirling grew more intense. Finally, the sky seemed to open itself up, and there was suddenly a swirling blue vortex in the sky. Looking like the formation of a hurricane, the vortex turned clockwise in the air, surrounding a hole that seemed to lead to somewhere _beyond_ the sky.

Starfire stared in shock at this sight. _No._ she thought. _The portal. It has opened again!_

Starfire had no time to ponder this further. She felt an extreme pain in the side of her face at that moment. The robots had resumed their attack and one had just punched her in the face.

Turning to them, Starfire began punching, kicking, and blocking their attacks, using every form of alien martial arts she had ever learned. As the robots continued their relentless assault, one delivered an uppercut to her chin. Starfire was propelled further into the sky, right towards the swirling vortex.

Down on the ground, the robots continued to press forward with their attack. Robin and Beast Boy were too busy dealing with their mechanized opponents to really wonder what was putting off that blue light, but Cyborg and Raven both looked up in time to see something they never thought they would see again. The portal was back.

As they watched, three flying robots drove Starfire right into the center of the vortex. They watched in horror as she disappeared inside, the three robots following right after her. _NO!_ they both thought. There was no time to do anything about this, however, as more robots began to attack them. The battle resumed.

------

Inside the portal, Starfire continued to battle with the robots. All the while, she noted the blue light, the bubbles of energy and the material of time, all swirling around her.

_No! It is happening again! It is happening exactly like last time! My friends!_ she thought in despair.

Turning around and flying towards the opposite end of this tunnel of dimensional fabric, Starfire attempted to out-fly her assailants. She would reach the other end and be ready to fight.

The light on the other end of the tunnel grew larger, until finally, Starfire broke through to the other side, feeling atmosphere around her once again.

Looking around the area, she saw that she was in the middle of a city with many buildings shaped liked domes. Many of the sky scrapers were all shafts that had a large round portion on top. Familiar. She knew where she was now. Turning around, Starfire watched the robots emerge from the portal. To her dismay, the portal closed once they were through, cutting her off. Again.

It was not surprising. It had happened like that the last time as well, and she had expected it to do the same this time. But it was still distressing. She was cut off from her friends once again. From Robin. There was no way to know how or when she could get back, and they needed her to help them.

Knowing that she could do little about it now, Starfire charged her starbolts, her eyes glowing green as she waited for her robotic attackers to reach her.

------

Inside the Capsule Corporation Headquarters building, three women were gathered in the kitchen. Chichi was showing Bulma and Number 18 some of her finer recipes. Having spent over twenty years cooking for Goku, then later for Gohan and Goten as well, she had learned a skill of cooking that was neigh unmatched. Neither Bulma nor 18 could cook anything halfway decent, and it was a wonder that either of them were able to sustain their families.

The men were outside on the balcony, talking about past battles no doubt. Vegeta and Krillin both had beers. Goku and Gohan had never really aquired a taste for beer, and so settled for fruit punch.

"And so the next thing I knew, I was standing in front of King Yemma's desk, and he's telling me that I'd been turned into a bar of chocolate and eaten by Majin Buu! As you can imagine, I was freaked. I mean, I'd been there before, several times, but never by being eaten." Krillin said to his companions.

Goku and Gohan started laughing. "Well," Goku began, "that was a lot less painful than the way some of us went out, you know." he said.

Vegeta nodded. "Yes. You had it easy. I had blow myself up to get to that damn office. And Yemma dared to keep me around for help. Hmph." Vegeta huffed, negative as always.

Gohan shook his head. "I didn't think I'd ever die in battle. I mean, you guys all died fighing Frieza and Cell, but I never got anything more than a broken bone here or there. When Buu blew up the earth, I was out cold. I didn't even feel it." he said to them.

And on they went, talking about their past experiences with life and death on the battlefield.

Inside the kitchen, Chichi was pulling the turkey from the oven.

"And viola! Its done. Now we just let it cool for a little bit and it will be ready to eat." she said. Bulma looked over the cooked bird carefully.

"And you're sure that it will come out alright if I follow those steps _exactly_?" she questioned.

Chichi nodded. "Oh yes. I've done this a hundred times, and Goku and the boys always enjoyed it."

18 smirked. "Your guys would enjoy eating anything short of the fungus that grows on a rock. And I wonder about that as it is." she said sarcastically.

The three women enjoyed a light giggle, thinking about the appetites of the Saiyans in Bulma and Chichi's families. 18 was just glad that Krillin and Marron didn't have stomachs like theirs.

Suddenly, from the living room, came the sound of the news anchor on the television. "Attention. In late breaking news that has reached this anchor's ears only a moment ago, we bring you live footage from the south district of West Capital City, where only moments ago, a disturbance was reported in the air above that section of town. Freddy, are you there?" the anchor asked.

The sound of another man's voice came over the speaker. "Yes, I am. I'm coming to you live from the south district of West Capital City and behind me is one of the most incredible things I've ever seen. It seems that there is some kind of a battle taking place in the air over town. What looks like a young red-haired woman is actually _hovering_ in the air. This young lady seems to be fighting what appears to be a trio of flying robots. There have been reports of flashes of green light coming from the young woman. We'll zoom the camera in so that viewers can have a closer look."

The women in the kitchen all looked at each other for a moment, then headed into the living room to see what was going on.

A moment later, Bulma stuck her head out the door to the balcony. "You guys need to come in and see this." she said seriously to the four men.

Soon, all seven of them were standing in the living room, watching the TV. On it, the camera had zoomed in to show what looked like a pretty teenage girl fighting three robots. She was punching and kicking them with what was obviously considerable strength, taking into account how sturdy those robots must be and how much they moved back whenever she struck them.

Then she started shooting at them with green energy from her hands and eyes. While the blasts were obviously powerful, they seemed to have no serious effect on any of the robots.

None of them watching this were really shocked to see a flying girl who could summon and shoot energy. They had all seen that, and most of them had even done that themselves countless times. But this did raise some concern. Who was this girl? What were those robots? Did this mean trouble for them? And how panicked was the public over this spectacle?

Goku cocked his head to the side. "Gosh. I don't think that girl is going to win." he said, voicing concern.

Krillin nodded. "Maybe we should go help her?" he suggested.

Bulma turned to them. "That's a good idea. You should all go. Maybe you can find out what this is all about." she said.

Goku nodded. "Alright then. C'mon guys. Let's go see what's up." he said. Going over to the balcony door, Goku opened it, stepped out, then took off into the sky. Gohan, Vegeta, Krillin and Number 18 all following him.

------

At West Capital City Elementary school, the news had reached the ears of the faculty. A message was going around for all teachers to turn on the television sets in their classrooms, which all schools had started to do to be kept up to date on any emergencies that might arise in the city.

In one fourth grade class sat a young girl with blue eyes, which looked dark in the wrong light. She had golden hair done up in pigtails tied with red ribbons, and no nose that could be seen on her face. Although this was an odd feature that made her stand out, she was very pretty, and her lack of a nose only seemed to add to her cuteness. This was Marron, the one and only daughter of Krillin and Number 18.

Marron was the living, breathing definition of a miracle child. Her mother, being mostly machine with very little of her biological human body remaining, had been certain that having a child was beyond her. And yet, she had given birth to this adorable little girl. Marron was a person who, by all rights, should not exist, but did, and it made her all the more special to those who knew her.

Marron was bored this day. It was Thursday, and the universal rule of schools was that nothing important, exciting or special happened on Thursdays. Her teacher was at the door to the class, talking to another teacher who had knocked. Finishing their conversation, the teacher turned back to the room.

"Class, we're going to stop for a moment to take a look at the news. Something strange is supposed to be happening on it." She reached up and turned on the TV set affixed to the wall. Turning it to the right channel, the teacher stepped back to watch. On the TV, the news team was focused on a flying girl who was in battle with a pack of robots.

When the camera zoomed in to get a closer look, Marron instantly recognized the person on the screen. She sat up straight in her desk.

"Starfire!" she exclaimed, drawing the attention of the whole class.

------

In one of the fifth grade classes, a ten-year-old boy sat in his seat, bored for the same reasons Marron was. This boy had black eyes, wild black hair that stuck out in all directions, and a face that seemed to have never known sadness or anger, only perpetual happiness. This was Son Goten, the second son of Goku and Chichi.

Goten was the surprise child of his family. Not so much because of his arrival in this world, but because of the timing. His father had been killed in the battle against Cell, and Goten was born nine months later to the day. His father had left him with his mother the night just before the Cell Games. Yet despite not knowing his father until he was brought back to life seven years later, Goten was exactly like him in almost every way, from his physical appearance to his behavior, to his lack of knowledge about almost everything. Goten was the truest definition of someone who's stupidity only made him more loveable.

"Children, we are going to take a look at the news now. I've heard that something exciting is supposed to be happening over the city." the teacher said to the class. Turning on the TV, Goten saw what the news was showing, and his mouth dropped open. He slammed his hands down on his desk in surprise.

"Starfire?" he said in shock. The other students in the class all looked around at him.

------

In one of the sixth grade classes sat another boy, one year older than Goten. This boy had light purple hair, blue eyes, and a face that was incredibly handsome even at his young age. This child was the cutest, most adorable child to ever live, on this or any other world. Despite his youth, this boy was already sought after by almost every girl who had ever taken a look at him. His looks, voice, behavior and the fact that he was rich were all in his favor of making him the envy of everyone around him. Girls all loved him; boys all wished they were him. This was eleven-year-old Trunks Briefs, labeled and forever to be known, for better and for even better, as **the Son of Vegeta and Bulma**, a fact which Trunks never ceased to be proud of.

Trunks was purest example of a boy who was simply better. It didn't matter what you did, Trunks was better. Whether it was sports, school work, music, videogames, meaningless things like seeing who could hold their breath the longest, it didn't matter. The answer was always the same; Trunks was better at it than you.

On this day, however, even Trunks couldn't think up a better way to distract his mind from the ceaseless boredom of Thursday at school. He watched as his teacher reached up and turned on the TV set. Something about late-breaking news that could be an emergency that they should all be ready for. Whatever. There hadn't been any real emergencies around here since the defeat of Majin Buu. Well, other than that little incident four months ago, but that hardly counted as an emergency around _here_, didn't it.

But as Trunks watched the news, as he saw what was taking place in the sky over the city, he was suddenly taken back to that time four months ago. Déjà vu settled in as he saw a familiar girl with long red hair, throwing green energy bolts at a group of robots. Trunks stood up suddenly, his chair falling back.

"Starfire!" he said, unbelieving. Every eye in the room turned to him. Realizing the attention he had called to himself, Trunks blushed slightly at his sudden reaction. He needed to get out of here, fast.

He looked to his teacher. "I, uh… need to use the restroom." he said. His teacher nodded, and Trunks left the room, not running until he was out the door, his yellow and black boots hauling it once the classroom door was shut behind him, the legs of his jeans swishing against each other as he ran.

As he ran down the hall, heading past the lower grade classes, he saw two other doors open in front of him. His two best friends in the world, Goten and Marron, both stepped out into the hallway, turning to look in his direction as they heard his running footsteps. Trunks slid to a stop in front of them.

"Starfire's on TV!" the three kids shouted to each other.

"You guys saw her too?" Goten asked. Trunks and Marron nodded.

"What do you think she's doing here?" Marron asked her friends. Goten shrugged and Trunks shook his head.

"I don't know, but I bet it means trouble. She looked like she needed help." Trunks said to them.

Goten looked at him. "Maybe we should go help her." he said.

Trunks frowned. "Our parents are all supposed to be at my house today, right? Maybe they the news already. If they did, you can bet our dads went to find out what's happening. I'll call my mom and find out. If they haven't gone already, we can have them go now. They'd get there before us. Come on, let's go to the service phone."

The kids ran down the hall to the wall at the end, where a phone hung for students who needed to call their parents for transportation. Trunks took out a coin and slid it in, pushing the buttons for his home phone number. After a few rings, the other line picked up. It was his mother.

"Hello?" Bulma answered.

"Mom, its me. Listen, there's something happening on the news. Have you seen it?" Trunks asked.

"Yes, we were just watching it here. You're father went with Goku and the others to check it out."

Trunks turned to his companions and gave them a thumbs up.

"Good. Goten, Marron and I will be there soon to help them." he said, preparing to hang up the phone as soon as she said goodbye. He did not expect what he heard.

"Now wait a minute, what do you mean as soon as you get there? You're not going anywhere. You kids are going to stay there at school and finish your day like you're supposed to."

Trunks' mouth dropped open. "But Mom, we have to help them. You see-" he began, about to tell her why they had to go.

"They don't need your help Trunks. You kids go to school for reason and you are going to stay there until it lets out, do you understand?" Bulma said strictly. Trunks knew that there was no reasoning with her. Once Bulma Briefs made up her mind, woe be to the one who dare try to stand in her way.

Trunks sighed in irritation. "Fine. Can you at least call them and tell them something for me. Gohan has a cell phone, right?" he asked. He heard his mother turn away from the phone and ask Chichi if Gohan was carrying his cell phone.

Back on the line, Bulma answered. "Yes, he does."

Trunks sighed in relief. "Good. Call him and tell him that he and the others can't hurt Starfire. Attack those robots only." he said.

Bulma asked him, "Who's Starfire?"

Trunks groaned. He wasn't prepared to answer that whole question over the phone.

"She's the girl on the TV. The one fighting the robots. Look, Goten and Marron and I, we know her, okay. We've met her before. Don't ask about it right now, it'd take to long to explain. Just tell Gohan and the others to help her and then get her back to Capsule Corp. safe, okay?"

Bulma sounded confused. "Okay, I'll tell him, but you are going to have some explaining to do when you get home, mister." she said.

Trunks groaned again. "Sure Mom, we'll explain the whole thing then. Bye." He hung up the phone. Marron and Goten were staring at him intently.

"Well?" they asked. Trunks shook his head.

"They won't let us go help. We have to stay here until school is done." he told them.

"Oh, man." They both said, let down. This day was going to go by even slower now.

------

The five adults were flying over the city to the spot where the battle was taking place. They were flying a little high, so as not to draw attention themselves. A sudden ringing sound made them all stop in midair. Looking at Gohan, from whom the sound was coming, they watched as he pulled a small cell phone from his pocket. Opening it up, he put it to his ear.

"Hello?" he spoke into it. "Bulma? Yes, we're almost there now. What? He did? They _do_? How? Are you sure? Well, okay. Thanks, bye." he said, closing the phone and looking puzzled.

Goku tilted his head. "What is it Gohan?" he asked his son. Gohan looked at him and the others, frowning.

"Bulma just got a call from Trunks. The kids all saw the news report at school. Trunks told Bulma that they know the girl we saw on the news. He called her 'Firestar' or something. He said we have to help her and get her back to Capsule Corp." he informed them.

Vegeta frowned. "What? How does Trunks know this girl?" he demanded. Gohan shrugged.

"He didn't tell her. Said he'd explain it when he and the others got out of school."

Krillin crossed his arms. "Well, that's weird." Everyone nodded. Goku looked serious again.

"Well, whatever the deal is, we need to hurry up and go help that girl. Lets go." he said, and they flew off again.

------

Starfire was beginning to tire. These robots had been exceptionally well made. Slade had learned how to make them specifically to battle a Tamaranian. Every starbolt she threw did no damage that she could see, and her strength seemed to be ineffective against the special armor that they were made of. Still, she refused to give up.

Continuing to punch and kick at the three robots, she found herself surrounded on all sides by them. All three drew back their fists and threw their punches at her from three different directions. Starfire was able to get her hands up in time to block the punch from the first robot, then the second, but she did not have time to block the third. The robot's fist connected just under her chin, knocking her into a dazed state.

Starfire began to fall. She did not fall far before she felt herself be caught in a pair of strong arms. Looking up, she saw the face of a young man a few years older than her, looking down at her with concern. Although her vision was blurry, she could not help but think that there was something familiar about him. Did she know him? He then spoke to her.

"Don't worry, Miss. We're here to help you."

Gohan looked down at the girl in his arms. She was about 15 or 16 years old. She had long red hair and strange green eyes that had no white in them, only green. She wore a purple top, purple miniskirt, purple boots that went up to her thighs and strange gloves with a green stone on the back of them. She appeared to be exhausted from fighting. Looking up, Gohan watched the others as they battled the robots that had been attacking her.

Goku was dodging the punches from the robot he faced easily. It moved way too slow compared to what he was used to fighting.

"Come on, is that the best you can do?" he asked the robot, not really expecting an answer. The robot threw another punch at him, but this time, Goku stopped it and countered with his own. His fist hit the robot in the chest and he felt the bone in his hand reverberate from the impact with the metal.

"Wow. Guess I'm going to have to hit a little harder." Making good on his promise, Goku punched again, putting a great deal of force behind this one. The robot shattered from the waist up, its metal pieces falling to the ground below like a pile of junk dropped from a plane.

"Well, that was a letdown." he complained, not really getting as much of a fight as his Saiyan blood had been anticipating.

Vegeta wasn't having any more fun than Goku. He'd been blocking the attacks of this pathetic robot like it was nothing. He was getting frustrated.

"Come on! Can't you give me a challenge you hunk of junk?" he questioned. Finally tired of this child's play spectacle, Vegeta stopped the robot's latest punch and shoved the thing back.

"Hell with this." he grunted. Putting his hand forward, he summoned his energy. The robot also raised its hand and began to summon its own power.

The air around Vegeta seemed to waver from the energy the robot appeared to be drawing in. Hmm, maybe this thing was going to put up a fight after all. Vegeta and the robot blasted at each other at the same moment. Vegeta's energy blast tore right through the robot's weaker attack and hit the metal thing squarely in the face. Its head torn off, the robot fell from the sky.

"Humph. That was ridiculously easy." he grumbled.

18, having analyzed the weaknesses of this robot she was facing, flew around and grabbed it right arm.

"Krillin, get its other arm." she ordered. Krillin kicked the robot in the chest again to keep it off balance, then spun around and grabbed its left arm. He and his wife both pulled with all their might in two separate directions. The ten-foot robot was ripped in half, its innards spilling out as they dropped it.

All three robots destroyed, the group turned to the girl in Gohan's arms, who was now coming around. Goku flew up close to her.

"Are you alright, Miss?" he asked her.

Starfire shook her head, starting to come around. Gohan released her and she righted herself in the air.

"I am not suffering any severe injuries. I have been beaten much worse before. But I thank you for your kindness." she said. Shaking her head one more time to rid herself of the ringing in her head, Starfire looked around at her rescuers. Five adult faces. She had never seen any of them before, but there was a familiarity about them that she recognized. The similarities in their features could not be ignored.

Starfire turned to Goku. "You are Son Goku, Goten's father, yes?" she asked, although she was quite sure that he was.

Goku nodded. "Yeah, good guess." he said, smiling at the girl's over-polite way of speaking. Turning around to the one who caught her, Starfire noted the similarities here to.

"And you are his older brother, Gohan, are you not?" Gohan nodded, bewildered.

Turning to an angry looking man with spiky hair that was swept up like fire, Starfire looked closely at the set of his face, knowing who he was immediately.

"You are Vegeta, Trunks' father." she stated, no doubt in her mind. Vegeta just glowered back at her.

Ignoring his angry stare, she turned the two remaining people. A man who was short with small black eyes and lacking a nose, and a woman with cold blue eyes, fair skin, and neck length blonde hair. Their features were just as recognizable.

"And you are Marron's parents. Krillin and Number 18, yes?" In response, 18 crossed her arms as she stared at the strange girl.

"It would seem that our daughter has been keeping secrets from us." she said.

Krillin nodded. "Yeah. Marron never mentioned you. How do you know our kids?" he asked the teenager.

Starfire, realizing that none of these people knew about her, figured that the kids must have never told them about what happened.

"I have met your children before, several months ago. I see that they have not told you about our meeting. Please, where are the children?" she asked them.

Goku answered her. "They're still in school right now. They saw you on the news and told us to come and help you. They want us to take you back home with us."

Starfire smiled in delight, her separation from the other Titans momentarily forgotten.

"Oh, that would be most wonderful. I do wish to see them again."

Goku smiled, liking the innocence of this teenaged girl.

"Alright, we'll take you to them. By the way, what's your name?" he asked her. Starfire blushed in embarrassment as she wondered where her manners had gone.

"Oh, please forgive me. I forgot proper introduction. My name is Starfire. Well, that is what my name means in your language anyway." she said, smiling.

Goku shook her hand. "Nice to meet you, Starfire. C'mon, follow us." he said. The group flew with Starfire back to the Capsule Corporation.

------

Back at the Capsule Corp. building, the adults were gathered in the living room, curious about the strange, red-headed girl sitting on the couch. It was clear to all of them that she was not human, and when asked about this, she had said she was a Tamaranian, from the planet Tamaran. Everyone had looked at Vegeta. Having lived most of his life in space, he knew more about other planets than anyone else in the room. But he had never heard of any such planet.

Starfire looked to the ground and responed to this. "Well, there is a special reason why you have not heard of it. When the children get here, I shall explain what I mean and why I am here." The girl looked sad, making the adults wonder if her being here was something that was not supposed to happen.

Gohan was curious about something. "What were those robots attacking you for?" he asked her. Starfire looked at him.

"They were created by a bad man who wished to use them to destroy me and… my friends." she added, now looking sadder than before.

Bulma looked at the clock. "Well, I guess the kids should be getting out of school right about now. Goku, why don't you go get them and bring them back here." she suggested. Goku nodded.

"Right." he said, putting two fingers to his forehead. Goku had been using his Instant Transmission teleport ability to transport Goten and Marron to West Capital City Elementary school for the last few years, since they both lived so far from it. Trunks had always opted to walk home, since the school was only a few blocks from his house. Today however, he would probably want to hitch a ride with Goku to get home faster. In the blink of an eye, Goku disappeared.

Starfire stood up, excited about seeing the three children again. She had never thought that she would see them again so soon after their last encounter. At most she had expected a few years to go by before she might see them again, if ever. But only a handful of months? It seemed that fate intended for her to always come across them.

Suddenly, Goku appeared in the middle of the living room. Trunks, Goten and Marron were holding on to him for the transport. Letting go, they looked around to see where Starfire was. Upon seeing her, their faces lit up with joy. Starfire beamed as well.

"Kids!" she squealed.

"Starfire!" they squealed back. The adults quickly moved out of the way as their offspring charged towards the girl, all but throwing themselves at her as the three wrapped their arms around her in a group hug. Starfire put her arms around the three of them and hugged them as one.

"Oh, it is glorious to see you all again!" she exclaimed. She released them and stepped back, looking down at each of them one by one.

Bending down to Goten on the right, she smiled at him.

"Goten! How is the spiky haired one?" she asked, running her hand through his spiked hair playfully.

Goten giggled. "I'm doing great Star. I'm glad to see you. I didn't think I ever would again." he said, his never ending grin spreading even wider.

"Nor I you." Starfire said to him, laughing as she saw his expression turn to confusion over the word 'nor', but still smiling.

Turning now to Marron on the left, Starfire patted the girl on the head.

"And Marron, how is the little sister I never had?" she asked, her voice full of affection. Marron smiled back with no less affection for the teenager.

"I'm fine. I've missed you a lot, Starfire. How's the big sister I never had?" she asked. Starfire's smile faltered slightly, but regained its brightness almost immediately.

" The situation has been better, but it has also been much worse." she answered vaguely, not wanting to ruin this moment with the details of her coming here.

Turning to Trunks, who stood in the middle, Starfire stared down at him for a moment, her expression softening even further. Kneeling down until she was almost eye-level with him, she put her arms around his shoulders and rested her cheek against his forehead, hugging him like a little brother that she had not seen in ages.

"Trunks. Oh, I have missed you most of all, _Grakooachi_." she said softly. Trunks put his arms around her and hugged her back.

"I've missed you too, _Grempnen_." Trunks said to her. Starfire pulled back and squealed in delight.

"You remembered the correct word!" she said excitedly. Trunks grinned and tapped a finger to his head.

"Of course. All your memories. I have the entire Tamaranian language, remember?" he said.

Starfire blushed. "Oh yes, that is right. I have not looked into your memories in so long, I nearly forgot that I had them." she said, slightly embarrassed.

The parents stood around them, watching this reunion of their children with this strange alien girl, their curiosity growing by the second. Standing up, Starfire clasped her hand together.

"This is so wonderful, being able to see your adorable faces once again."

Trunks smiled up at her. "We're happy to see you too Starfire." His smile then faded to a frown. "But, how did you get here? And what were those robot things you were fighting?" he asked her.

Starfire's smile faded as well, a look of sadness coming to her face. She supposed that now was the time to fill them in.

"I shall tell you what happened. But first, I am thirsty. May I have something to drink before I begin?" she asked.

Trunks put up a hand. "Oh, I got it."

The adults watched as Trunks left the room and headed into the kitchen. He came back a moment later with a bottle of mustard. He held it out to Starfire.

"Here you go. Freshly opened too." he said with a grin. Taking the bottle from his hand, Starfire smiled at him.

"Thank you." she said. Putting the mustard bottle in her mouth, Starfire tipped her head back and drank deeply of the wonderful yellow drink.

The jaws of the adults dropped at this spectacle. Even Goku, who had a habit of eating everything in front of him when in feeding frenzy, would never have drank pure mustard like that. Seeing how the adults were reacting, Trunks put up a hand.

"Don't ask. It's a Tamaranian thing. Mustard is like wine to them." he said.

Her thirst quenched, Starfire sat back down on the couch.

"It was Slade." she said to them. The kids gathered around her on the couch immediately.

"He's back?" Goten asked. Starfire nodded.

"He has been making his robots more and more deadly. He has declared an all-out war against the Titans, and Jump City." she said, her fist clenching as she spoke. Trunks moved up close to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Tell me everything that happened." he said.

------

Looking around the remains of the area, Robin finally allowed himself to relax. He was cut and bruised, but alive. All his friends were beaten up, but everything was okay. The robots had been defeated, but Robin knew that this was the closest battle ever. The street, the cars in it, and many of the building along the side of it were in ruins.

Beast Boy walked up to him. "Dude, I think I chipped a tooth." he complained. With the tension leaving his body now, Robin couldn't help but chuckle at Beast Boy's well-timed remark.

Walking over to one of the fallen robots, Robin reached out and pulled on its black and copper face. Underneath, as he had guessed, was a small screen. The screen flickered to life, with Slade's image on it.

"Well done, Robin. You've managed to defeat my armies once again. Although, this battle seems to have cost you more than the others." the madman said to him. Robin glared back in defiance.

"I may be a little banged up, but so are your robots. You're never going to win Slade. I won't let you take this city. The Teen Titans will always be here to beat you." he told the evil man.

Slade chuckled. "Maybe so. But not _all_ of the Titans." he said smugly.

Robin frowned. "What do you mean?" he demanded.

Slade's single eye narrowed. "Count the heads Robin. You seem to be one short." he answered.

"Robin." he heard Raven say behind him. Turning around, Robin saw that she and Cyborg were looking at him in a weird way.

"Its Starfire." Raven said. Starfire? What about her? Looking around, Robin noticed that he didn't see Starfire anywhere.

"Where is she?" he asked. Cyborg sighed and took a step forward.

"Look, Robin-" he began. Now Robin was getting really worried.

"Where is she I asked!" he demanded an answer.

Raven looked down at the ground for a moment, then back up at him. "She was fighting some of Slade's robots in the air. I saw… I saw the portal open." she said.

Robin frowned. "The portal? What portal?" he asked. Cyborg stared hard at him.

"_The_ portal, man." he said, hoping that Robin wouldn't take it as hard as he feared he would. Robin's eyes widened as it suddenly clicked.

"What? No." he whispered.

Raven nodded slowly. "Starfire… was driven into it. It closed on her." she said gently. Robin stood still, his mouth hanging open in shock.

Beast Boy looked pale. "Not again. There's no way that it could have happened again. Could it?" he asked rhetorically.

Fist clenched, Robin turned back to the screen in the robot's head. Even with his mask on, Slade seemed to be smirking.

"Sorry Robin. You're precious little alien friend has left the building. I'd say your chances for victory next time have just taken a plunge." he mocked. The image shattered as Robin's fist smashed the screen. Robin looked up into the sky.

"No." he said to the endless blue.

------

"No!" Trunks said as he pounded his fist down into his palm.

Number 18 placed a hand on her daugher's shoulders as the girl struggled to keep from breaking down at this news.

"Slade will destroy them all." Marron said, her voice almost dripping with despair. "Without you there, its only a matter of time before he makes a weapon strong enough." she said to Starfire.

Trunks turned to her. "No Marron. Slade may have access to our kind of power now, but the Titans will not give up. They'll find a way to beat him. Slade will lose, just like he lost last time." he said to her, absolute confidence in his voice. Marron looked a bit happier, hearing this from him.

Goten nodded. "Yeah. There's no way old Metal Face can beat them. You remember how tough they are." he said excitedly.

Bulma raise her hand. "Excuse me." she said. Starfire and the three kids turned to look at her.

"Yes. This is all very interesting, but could you please tell us what you are talking about! What's going on here?" she asked impatiently. The others nodded in agreement. It was time that their kids explain themselves.

Trunks gulped, realizing that the time for secrecy was over.

"Starfire isn't from this dimension. She comes from another one, an alternate dimesion. Another universe a bit different from our own. She's part of a team of superheroes called the Teen Titans." he explained.

The adults' eyes went wide at this information.

"But, how did you kids find out about all of this?" Krillin asked. Trunks blushed, knowing that the next part was going to be embarrassing for him and his friends. They might even get in trouble for it.

"Well, you remember four months ago when you all went on vacation and you left me and Goten and Marron here with Grandma and Grandpa?" he asked. The parents nodded. Trunks continued.

"Well, Starfire came over here while you guys were gone. She was stuck here, but Dende helped us open the portal that led back to her world. We went over into her dimension with her." he said.

"What!" the adults all shouted. Chichi put her hands on her hips.

"Goten, you mean you went over into a strange world without any supervison?" she asked. Goten blushed and tried to hide behind Starfire.

"Why didn't you kids tell us about this?" Goku asked.

Bulma scowled. "Yeah, Trunks. You told us that you kids had wondered into the forest that day. You got grounded for two weeks because of it." she reminded them.

Trunks continued. "Well, we didn't' think you guys would believe us if we told you the truth. We thought you'd just accuse us of telling lies to avoid punishment and that you'd punish us anyway. So we just made up a lie about what we did to skip the whole thing. What we were really doing was helping the Titans out."

Bulma raised an eyebrow. "Well, you were acting kind of strange that week when I got back. I thought you were just bored from being grounded to your room." she said. A single drop of sweat rolled down Trunks' head at this. He and the others had been pretty bummed out when they'd had to say goodbye to the Titans. They were all so cool, and none of them had wanted to leave so soon.

Starfire decided that now was the time to let the adults know what the kids had really done for her and her friends. Standing up, she clasped her hands in front of her chest and smiled at the parents.

"Friends, your children are responsible for saving my life and for helping my friends and I save our world from the evil Frieza." she told them. All the adults' jaws dropped again at the name.

"Frieza!" they shouted.

Goku put a hand to his head. "How did this happen? He's supposed to be dead." he said, stunned to know that one of his greatest enemies was still causing trouble.

Trunks stepped forward. "Dende told us about what happened. You guys remember Babidi? That wizard guy who freed Majin Buu?" he asked them. They nodded. Trunks went on.

"Well apparently, down in Hell, he was casting some kind of a magic spell to make a portal leading out of there. It worked. But it also created a portal up here in this world leading to another dimension; Starfire's dimension." Seeing that he had everyone's attention, he finished.

"The Hell guardians tried to stop him and there was some kind of big battle. Frieza managed to get to the portal and escape Hell. He got out into our world and saw the other portal. He went through it and went into Starfire's universe. At the same time, Starfire was being thrown through the portal on her side, into our universe…"

* * *

Are you hooked? This story is going to take quite some time to finish. There will be updates as soon as possible, but between work, summer classes, and two other multi-chaptered Titans fics that I'm doing, everyone will just have to be patient as they wait for updates. The next chapter will go back four months to when this whole thing started like how Trunks was telling it. This story will have four arcs, with an interlude between each one that will keep up on how Starfire is doing trapped in the DBZ world in the present time. I hope you all keep reading. See you at the next update, whenever that is. Bye now. 


	3. Chapter 1

**The Coolest Thing To Happen: **

**The Teen Titans/DragonBall Z Crossover**

**By **

**Teen Tyrant**

To show the change from the world of the Teen Titans and the world of DragonBall Z, there will be parts preceded with **Titan World** or **Z World**, to show the transition.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

------

**Four Months Earlier**

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**Z World**

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Hell.

The realm where mortals go when they die, if they have caused more harm than provided help in their lives. Most of the denizens of Hell are transformed into little grey clouds of a smoke-like substance; their souls. They are then released into a realm that, while providing some comforts, is generally hostile, and they must learn to deal with the other inmates of this reality for the rest of eternity. It is not pleasant company.

To enforce order throughout Hell, many ogres patrol the realm, breaking up disputes and fights among the inmates. However, there are some that are too strong to control, and help must be brought in from above.

Some of the inmates of Hell are so powerful or unique, that they have kept their bodies intact, a halo above their heads to signify that they are, in fact, dead.

On this day, one such resident of Hell was attempting to do what every other inhabitant of the realm had tried to do time and time again… escape.

In one of the grassy clearings of Hell, far away from the lava pits, spiked rock formations, and the prying eyes of patrolling ogres, was a very tiny man, only three feet high. He wore a blue robe, with an orange cloak. He was not a human man, but rather an alien. He had brown skin, a large head shaped like a basketball. His head was covered in many deep wrinkles. All in all, he looked like a living peanut. This was the wizard known as Babidi.

"Paparapapa!" Babidi shouted, thrusting his wrinkly brown hands forward in the air. His eyes were closed. He repeated the word and the action again and again, oblivious to all that took place around him.

"What the devil are you doing, Babidi?" came an old and mocking voice. Babidi opened his eyes and turned his head to see two of his fellow Hell-mates standing beside him. Dr. Gero, the old mastermind behind the Red Ribbon Army and the breathing definition of "mad scientist". To Gero's right, stood his greatest achievement; the genetically engineered monster, Cell; a green, insect/lizard creature, arms folded, staring down at Babidi with cold purple eyes.

Both, like Babidi, had taken shots at destroying Goku and the other Z Warriors, and attempted to conquer earth, and both, like Babidi, had failed and ultimately ended up here, cursed to eternal damnation. Babidi faced his head forward again.

"I am attempting to use my sorcery and open a portal out of this wretched place. I'm certain that with the right application of magic, I can create an opening to the mortal world." he said in irritation, hoping that the two would leave him alone to concentrate.

Gero and Cell both shared a quiet chuckle. "Please, Babidi. We've tried this before. No one is ever going to simply 'open a portal' out of here. There is only one exit from this place, and the only ones who know where it is are not here. But, I suppose we could lend a hand, just to see how far you get before giving up." Dr. Gero said with a laugh, taking off his tall black hat and rubbing at the plastic jar that housed his brain in his robotic body.

Babidi grunted. "If you want to help me, then just make sure that none of the guardians see what I'm doing. If I am interrupted at a critical point, I could alter the reality setting of the universe by accident. Dealing with inter-dimensional boundaries is no simple task. Now stop bothering me." he said, hoping that they would listen to him for once.

Cell unfolded his arms and rested them at his sides in fists. "Well, perhaps we should alert some of the others, just in case he does succeed, wouldn't you agree Doctor?" Cell asked his creator, and he and Gero moved off to let some of their other "friends" know what Babidi was up to, laughing to themselves at the silliness of Babidi's intent.

Babidi concentrated harder, continuing to weave the spell, summoning all of his magic forward as his hands began to glow with golden energy. "Paparapapa!"

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**Titan World**

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Starfire opened her eyes, knowing by the amount of light coming into her room from below her curtains that it was very early in the morning. The sun was only just beginning to rise. At first, she was confused as to why she would be awake this early in the morning and still feel so well rested. Then she recalled that the night before, Beast Boy had opted to stay up late watching a form of movie that Cyborg had called, "Westerns". While Starfire had never seen one of these, she had been assured by her friends that she probably would not like it, and so had chosen to go to bed early like her other friends, leaving Beast Boy alone in the living room all night.

Pushing the covers away from herself, Starfire sat up in her round bed. Her head was not hanging off of the end of the bed with her feet on the pillow, as he had used to sleep. Recently, she had begun sleeping the way she had seen humans sleep, and had found it much more comfortable.

Rising out of bed, Starfire set her feet on the ground and stood to her full height, running her hands through her beautiful red hair.

Starfire was a beauty rarely seen on earth; Cherry red hair, emerald green eyes, and not just the irises either, but the whites were actually greens, making her entire optical organs pure green. She had a cute, unblemished face, as her species did not suffer from adolescent acne as humans did. Being of a warm and sun battered world, Starfire's skin was very tan, almost to the point of looking orange. She had a thin, yet muscular body, with legs that seemed to go on forever. She wore her usual purple top and skirt, with purple boots that came all the way to her mid-thighs. All in all, physically, she was every male's desire. Of course, anyone who knew her also knew that her drop-dead gorgeous looks weren't even half of what made her so incredible.

Starfire stretched out her arms and reached into her closet to grab a towel and a new uniform. As she exited her room and headed for the bathroom to take her morning shower, she noticed someone coming down the hall of the tower. It was Robin.

Starfire immediately smiled as her… best friend continued to walk in her direction. As Robin passed by, drying his wet hair with a towel, signifying that he had just left the shower, he looked up and noticed her. A smile adorned his face as well as hers.

"Good morning, Starfire." he said to her in a friendly voice, showing that he was as well rested as she was and had not been up all night studying leads on crimes.

"Good morning, Robin. Since we are both the 'early birds' this morning, perhaps you would enjoy watching the sun come up with me, after I have cleansed?" she asked, hoping that he would say yes. Since they were hardly ever up this early, it was an opportunity she did not want to miss, and to share it with him would make it even more special.

Robin nodded. "Sure." he said, and continued walking towards his room.

Starfire's smile widened in delight as she entered the bathroom and shut the door.

------

When Starfire exited some time later, changed into a new uniform and drying her long hair with the towel, she headed back to her room, put the towel in the hamper, then headed to the common room of the tower.

As she entered, she noticed that Cyborg and Raven were up as well, having gone to bed early like Robin and herself. Cyborg was going through the cupboards and trying to decide what to cook for breakfast, while Raven was over in a corner, hovering above the ground with her legs crossed, trying to do her morning meditation.

"Good morning, friends!" Starfire beamed happily, as always.

"Good morning, Star." they responded without looking at her, acknowledging her presence while continuing to go about their business.

Starfire innocently put her hand behind her back. "Have you seen Robin? He and I were going to watch the sunrise this morning." she informed them.

Before either of them could answer, Starfire felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see Robin standing behind her.

"I'm right her, Star. We can go up to the roof now, if you want." he ventured.

Starfire smiled and grabbed his hand. "Of course, now would be most agreeable, Robin." she said, happily.

Before the two could head to the stairway that led to the roof, a sudden flashing of red lights, followed by a blaring alarm, rang throughout the living room of Titans Tower.

Starfire's face fell, as did Robin's. It looked like they were not going to get to watch the sunrise today after all. Typical Teen Titan bad luck.

Robin immediately disengaged his hand from Starfire's and headed for the large TV near the windows, where the alert messages were always displayed.

"Trouble." he said simply. Raven lowered herself to the ground and drew her cloak around herself as she moved closer to the monitor. Cyborg closed the cupboards in the kitchen and also headed for the monitor.

"Aw, man. I didn't even decide what breakfast was. I hope this is something easy." Cyborg whined.

Sighing as another perfect opportunity to spend time with Robin was shot down, Starfire lifted herself into the air and flew over to where the others were gathering. As Robin began pushing buttons to call up the alert screen, Starfire heard the living room doors open behind her. Turning around, she saw her friend Beast Boy enter the room, seeming to be sleep walking.

"I'm here." he said in a drone-like voice, clearly still more asleep than awake. He really had stayed up all night. And it was only 6:00 am, earth time. He looked terrible. Starfire flew over to him, and smiled as she placed a hand on his shoulder. She walked the smaller Titan over to the TV screen.

At last, Robin called up a map of Jump City, the town that the Titans called home. In the middle of the screen, at the intersection of two of the busiest streets in the city, flashed a name.

Robin's eyes narrowed. "Killer Moth." Robin said, entirely focused on the battle that no doubt awaited them in the city.

Cyborg's shoulders drooped and he seemed to squirm. "Great, bug trouble." he said, almost shivering at the thought of whatever the insectoid madman had cooked up.

Turning off the monitor, Robin turned around to face his team. "Let's get going." he said, before heading off towards the elevator. The other Titans followed him, Raven raising her hood up over her head as she went. She hardly ever let her head be exposed when going out in public.

The only Titan who did not follow the others immediately was Beast Boy. Still leaning forward with his eyes closed and a single string of drool running from his fanged mouth, Beast Boy turned around and headed to the kitchen. Opening the refrigerator, he reached inside and pulled out a single block of some quivering white substance.

"Need some breakfast first. Too tired." moaned the green skinned teenager. Beast Boy stuffed the large block of tofu into his mouth and gulped it down, uttering a medium sized belch afterward. Feeling a little bit better already, Beast Boy opened his eyes halfway and turned around to head for the elevator.

------

In the part of the city where the alert had been raised, the part of town that the Titans were even now heading to, stood a man who was no longer a man. He was shaped like one, but the resemblance ended there. He had the eyes of an insect, large and fractured, seeing several dozen pictures of the world at once, like a wall of TV screens, each one just slightly aimed in a different direction than the others.

He also had an ugly fur growing on his arms and legs, which were jointed oddly. He had a pair of large insect-like wings on his back. His fingers ended in claws like stingers and his mouth was fully of razor teeth. This was Killer Moth, Jump City's resident bug freak criminal.

Killer Moth was standing in the middle of the street, his arms held wide, laughing maniacally to the sky. People were running screaming in all directions, some leaving their cars running in the street. They were not running from Killer Moth himself, but rather from the creatures that accompanied him. His latest successful experiment, dragonflies twelve feet long with scorpion pincer claws. There were four of them, all causing some kind of damage in the area. Two were chewing on street lights and the other two were using their claws to open the tops of cars like sardine cans.

Killer Moth stopped laughing at the chaos his new "babies" were creating when he saw a car much fancier than any other in town turn onto the street he was on and start heading towards him.

"Come to me, my pets. Our guests have arrived." he commanded to the dragonflies. They all stopped eating metal and moved their long, thin bodies over to their master, their wings creating an awful annoying buzzing sound.

As the T-Car screeched to a stop, the Teen Titans all piled out of the car. Cyborg quickly locked it up with its many anti-theft devices, then he and the rest of the team spread out and took their fighting stances.

Robin extended his staff. "Okay, Killer Moth, are you going to come quietly? Or does my buddy Cyborg here need to build a giant bug zapper to put you down?" Robin asked menacingly, knowing that Killer Moth was not going to surrender willingly.

Killer Moth laughed and responded in his raspy voice. "Robin, you know how this works. As a respectable villain of this community, it is my duty to use whatever means necessary to destroy the heroes. So lets get to it, shall we?" he proposed, before taking flight with his wings and flying right at Robin, his claws held out for an attack.

Robin readied himself for the attack. "Titans! Go!" Robin shouted, blocking Killer Moth's claws the next second.

All the Titans moved forward to confront the dreaded dragonflies. Each one selected a target. Beast Boy morphed into a pteranodon and flew at his enemy. The dragonfly snapped its claws at him while Beast Boy began biting and pecking away at its exoskeleton with his dinosaur beak.

Raven focused her energy around her hands, ripping a NO PARKING sign out of the sidewalk and swinging it at one of the dragonflies. The creature was hit on the side of the head with the flat of the sign. It righted itself in the air a moment later, and as Raven swung the sign again, it caught it in its scorpion claw.

Cyborg reached out with both mechanical arms and grasped the claws on his dragonfly. The insect also grasped his hand with its claws. As the two jocked for position, Cyborg realized that these things, like all insects, were quite strong. Knowing he needed more than strength to beat this bug, he extended several tentacle-like cords from his shoulders and wrapped them around the beast's neck, trying to throttle it.

Starfire flew higher up into the air, watching as the last dragonfly buzzed towards her, its wings making a horrible racket. Starfire encased her hands in green energy as her eyes began to glow. She fired a single starbolt at the creature to see its effect. The blast seemed to bounce off of the bug's hard exoskeleton, showing Starfire that she'd need to use stronger blasts than that one if she hoped to destroy this thing.

Starfire flew straight at the bug and threw a punch at its ugly face, half covered by its multiple eye lenses. The creature quickly caught her punch in its claw, clamping painfully down on her wrist.

"Let go of me!" Starfire howled at the beast. She swung her other fist at the thing, but that arm too was caught in a similar fashion. Starfire began to wave her arms around frantically, in an attempt to dislodge the creature from her arms. All to no avail.

On the ground, Robin put one end of his staff on the ground and used it to poll-vault his way over Killer Moth's head. As he touched down on the other side of the madman, he immediately knelt down to his knees and swept his staff back behind him, knocking Killer Moth's legs out from under him.

"Aaugh" Killer Moth howled in pain and frustration as the staff collided painfully with the backs of his legs. He moaned again when his head hit the ground. Shaking his head, he propelled himself up to his feet again and spun to face Robin again. Throwing punch after punch at the boy, all of Killer Moth's attacks were dodged or blocked, and after the seventh punch thrown, Killer Moth received three rapid punches to his own face, causing him to stagger back, dazed. He shook his head again. This was going to be much more challenging than he thought.

------

**Z World**

------

In Hell, Babidi suddenly ceased in his chanting and smiled. _Yes, that's it! I've almost got it!_ Indeed, a pocket of air in front of Babidi began to glow golden like his hands as he weaved his spell to open a portal out of Hell. He only prayed he wasn't altering the reality matrix of the mortal world while he did it. The results could be any number of things.

Behind him, a sizable crowd had gathered, consisting of Cell, Dr. Gero, Frieza, King Kold, the Ginyu Force, and several members of the Red Ribbon Army; Hell's most dangerous inhabitants. They all watched as their ally began to do what was thought impossible. All their mouths hung open, some of them had formed their hands into fists and were moving them up and down in the air, quietly cheering the sorcerer on.

Suddenly, a hole, no larger than a pinprick, appeared in the air. It was black, surrounded by the golden glow of the magic forcing it open. A hole that led out of this reality and, hopefully, back to the world of the living. Babidi and the villains behind him all began to grin wickedly, as an actual escape was presenting itself.

Babidi concentrated harder, pouring more of his magic powers into the spell. "Paparapapa!" he continued to shout, the enchanting word allowing him to use all his spells. The hole began to grow larger. To dime size. To quarter size. To the size of a door knob. To the size of a manhole. Finally, to a hole five feet in diameter, plenty of room for any of them to fit through, with the exception of King Kold, who's enormous frame would have had trouble entering a two car garage.

Babidi stared at the achievement he had made and began to laugh maniacally. Finally, a chance to make all those who had wronged him pay!

"Hey you! What's going on here? Everyone break it up!" Came a gruff shout. The group of Hell inmates turned around to see that their little gathering had finally become noticed. A dozen red and blue muscle-bound ogres had gathered in the clearing facing them. Standing with them was a tall green man with no nose, a white and blue outfit covering his body, with a turban on top of his head. Pikkon, one of the greatest champions of Heaven. So the ogres had brought backup to deal with what looked like trouble.

Cell decided to speak on behalf of the group. "Well, hello there boys. We were just playing a game. Surely you are all far too busy to interrupt us while we are having some harmless entertainment." he said mockingly, his voice layered with sarcasm.

Pikkon and the ogres said nothing, merely grunted in response, not about to leave the villains alone when they were grouped together like this, as it always led to trouble.

Cell stepped forward and balled his hands into fists. "Very well, then. I guess we're going to have to settle this out the same way we always do." he said, lowering himself into a fighting stance and summoning up all of his incredible power. Many of the other villains did like-wise. Babidi whispered an enchantment to hold the portal out of Hell open for a few minutes, while he helped the others deal with the interruption. If they left now, with these guys here, they'd be able to follow them and drag them back at once.

"Paparapapa." Babidi said, encasing himself in a shield of sorcery, to avoid potential bruisings.

Pikkon took on a fighting stance as well. "Disperse now. This is your only warning." he said, speaking to Cell directly. Cell merely smirked, then charged forward, the other villains right behind him. The ogres behind Pikkon ran forward as well, clubs ready bash some heads.

As the guards and inmates clashed, Frieza stayed back, moving slowly towards the portal. As he backed up next to Babidi, he turned and looked down at the little alien.

Speaking in his feminine sounding voice, Frieza asked him, "Tell me, is this going to stay open for very long?"

Babidi looked away from the battle and turned to look up at Frieza. "It will stay open as long as I stay conscious. But if it closes, I will not be able to open it again. That spell will work only once." he said, then looked back at the fight, silently rooting for his partners.

Frieza smirked. That was all he needed to know.

------

In the mortal world, on planet earth, the portal that Babidi had opened to lead out of Hell had opened up there as well; the exit point. It was relatively close to a large dome-shaped building, yellow in color, the words Capsule Corporation painted on it.

On the other side of this building, where the portal out of Hell could not be seen, three children were in the massive yard. Trunks, Goten and Marron were being babysat by Trunks' grandparents, while their parents had all gone on a sightseeing vacation across the world. Rather, Trunks and Goten's mothers and Marron's father had gone on a sightseeing vacation across the world, and had dragged their reluctant significant others along with them. Goten's older brother Gohan had gone as well, taking his girlfriend Videl along.

Trunks and Goten were sparring in the yard, on the ground so as not to draw attention with flying. Trunks was dressed in his usual green sparring gi and wearing his favorite yellow and black velcro boots. Goten was in his usual orange gi, and was wearing small black boots, like his father's.

Sitting at a lawn table, sipping a lemonade, was Marron. The girl was dressed in an outfit similar to what her mother had once worn, only much smaller. A denim vest over a black shirt, a denim skirt over black leggings, and two small brown boots on her feet.

Marron was watching as her two best friends playfully fought each other. Marron wished she could join them, but knew that they wouldn't be able to enjoy fighting her as much as each other, as they'd have to bring their power levels down considerably. While Marron's parents had finally begun teaching her how to fight these last couple of years, she was nowhere near Trunks and Goten's levels, and she knew that she never would be. Compared to a normal human, her strength was phenomenal; compared to Trunks and Goten, her strength was pitiful.

As she watched the two, Marron could see already that Trunks was going to win again, as usual. Goten was close to Trunks in power, but was never able to quite get up enough strength to defeat him, even in a playful battle. He never seemed to hold this against Trunks and held his friend in high regard, but he tried nonetheless.

Trunks was now throwing punch after rapid punch at Goten, who was able to block them, but it was getting tiring. He started to thrown some kicks at his friend, but Trunks ducked down below them and got in a kick of his own to Goten's gut. Goten doubled over for a moment with an "oof" and scooted back, flattening down the grass with his steps.

Trunks wiped an arm across his forehead, cleaning off a light sweat. "Ready to give up yet, Goten?" he asked in mock arrogance, knowing his friend would never give up so easily, and not wanting him to.

Goten grinned back at his buddy. "You wish." the ten-year-old replied.

Marron picked up one of the cookies Trunks' grandmother had set out on the table and began to munch it, taking a sip of lemonade now and again while she watched them continue.

The three kids had no idea that on the other side of the mansion that Trunks called home, an event was about to take place that would alter the course of their lives.

In the sky, high above where the portal leading from Hell had opened, a bizarre crackling noise began to emanate. The very fabric of the sky began to swirl, like a whirlpool in a body of water. In the center of this strange vortex, a hole began to open as the sky seemed to sink into itself, similar to the effect of a black hole, but with no gravity increase. A blue light began to shine through the sky, from around the edges of this hole, lighting up several city blocks of West Capital City.

As people looked out the windows of cars and buildings at the strange phenomenon, the attention of the kids in the Capsule Corp. backyard was also caught. Trunks, Goten and Marron all turned their heads as one to look up to the sky and all uttered the same word at once.

"Huh?"

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**Titan World**

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As Starfire and her fellow Titans continued to struggle with the insectoid creatures they were battling, a strange blue light lit up the sky above Jump City. Starfire, very close to the disturbance, looked up to see a vortex in the sky, swirling around a central point that looked almost like a hole in the sky itself.

The dragonfly that still held her also saw this and felt immediately drawn to the strange light, due to its insectoid instincts. The dragonfly beat its wings and took off towards the center of the vortext… carrying Starfire right along with it.

"No! Release me! Please, release me! I do not wish to get close to this new event!" Starfire shouted, hoping that some part of the insect's brain would understand and feel mercy. It did not. As she continued to struggle with the bug that held her arms, Starfire was pulled closer and closer to the hole in the sky with each passing second.

Down on the ground, the other Titans and insects also noticed the vortex and watched as Starfire was pulled towards it.

"Starfire!" Robin shouted, before being punched in the face by Killer Moth while he wasn't looking.

Killer Moth laughed and shouted to his creatures, "Do not stop attacking! Destroy them!" The remaining bugs forgot about their desires to fly to the vortex and continued to press forth the attack.

Cyborg and Robin could not fly, and Beast Boy was still locked in a close quarters battle with his dragonfly. Raven was the only one who could fly up to where Starfire was and pull her back away from whatever that swirling, glowing vortex was in the sky. As she started to ascend, her dragonfly suddenly latched onto her ankle with its pincer. Raven kicked at the thing's head to make it let go, but it was being stubborn.

Robin dodged Killer Moth's attacks and lashed back with his own in fury. They had to end this so they could get to Starfire before she got to close to whatever that was up there.

But as the minutes went on with no end in the battle yet, Robin began to panic. That bug had pulled Starfire along with it. It had to have reached that thing by now and if it had, what had become of Starfire? Had she managed to get away? He'd not had time to look up. Now, battling Killer Moth far enough away from himself to allow a breather, he was about to look up to see if he could see her, when the blue light shining down from the sky faded out.

Robin looked up into the sky, horrified to see that the hole in the sky was gone, the vortex swirling around it also gone. The sky was normal again. He did not see any sign of Starfire. Had that bug carried her into that hole? Where did it lead to?

Robin's eyes widened as it dawned on him that the vortex in the sky had looked a lot like some kind of… portal! It could have lead to who knows where. And if that dragonfly had continued to carry Starfire to it…

Robin balled his hands into fists.

"Noooo!"

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**Z World**

------

As Frieza back further away, until he was standing behind Babidi, he turned and moved towards the portal. Looking back at the battle one more time, he saw that nobody noticed he was at the hole. Cell and Pikkon were in the air, punching and kicking like mad, while the rest of the bunch were on the ground, attacking the ogres and receiving smacks in the head from their clubs in the process.

Frieza lifted himself off the ground and flew backwards through the portal, raising the index finger on his right hand as he did so. A beam of pink energy shot forward from his finger, penetrating the weak side of Babidi's shield and hitting the little wizard in the back of his head.

Babidi fell forward, out cold. A moment later, the portal closed, but only after Frieza had flown all the way into it.

------

Flying out of the other end of the portal into the moral world, Frieza looked back to see the dark hole close, sealing the pathway to the afterlife once again. Frieza looked around. He recognized this as being the planet earth. And that meant that Goku and his friends were here. He did not know what to do about that. As much as he hated to admit it, those damn Saiyans were far to strong for him now. He would never survive a fight with them.

Of course, looking up to the halo above his head, it wasn't as though he had to survive. Even though he had passed into the world of the living, he was still technically dead.

Frieza noticed that there was a strange blue light shining all around. He looked to a large yellow dome to his right, where he could see a swirling light flickering against its side. Looking up, Frieza saw a spectacular sight. Another portal, this one shining blue, and going straight up, rather than forward like a door into another room, like the one he had just come through.

So Babidi had destabilized something after all. He had opened another portal. But this one seemed more special than merely a portal from the realm of afterlife to that of life. Where did this portal go? Another planet? Or perhaps…

Frieza's eyes widened at the thought. Another universe? Another reality of existence? One where, perhaps, there would be no Saiyans?

Smirking, Frieza knew that this was a stroke of luck. His new goal firmly in his mind, Frieza began to fly straight for the portal in the sky. He noticed that it did not seem to be closing like the last portal had. This one seemed to be stable with or without Babidi's spell holding it open.

Frieza reached the swirling mass of sky and, after a moment's hesitation, flew into the dark hole in the center of it.

All around him, a sea of blue energy! Plasma, radiation, bubbles of energy, the fabric of time, all swirling around him, vibrating to some strange beat. Incapable of being described accurately.

Frieza looked forward. He could see another opening before him, growing larger as he neared it. That was his destination, the exit of one dimension and the entrance to another.

As he got closer, Frieza could hear with his cup-shaped ears a high pitched squealing sound. As he continued to approach the hole at the other end, he could see something in his path, coming from the other direction. The sound turned from a squealing to a shrieking, the sound of a female voice in distress.

Frieza moved to the side as a large insectoid life form twelve feet long flew past him, carrying a young female figure with red hair, in a purple outfit.

Frieza wrapped his white, serpentine tail around his three-toed feet and shuddered as he wondered what could have been happening in the world this portal led to.

Turning away from this bizarre sight and back to the end of the portal, Frieza flew as fast as he could towards it. As he finally reached the end, he flung himself into open air again. Looking around, he could see he was in a world similar to the one he just left, but different.

The time was different for one thing; this world's sun had just begun to come up, while the earth in the universe he had just left seemed to have been up for a few hours.

Looking up as the slight crackling sound ceased, Frieza watched as the hole in the sky shrank from view and disappeared. The swirling vortex of sky slowed and corrected itself, the blue glow dying off.

Apparently, passing through the portal had destabilized it into closing on itself. He was cut off, but so what? He was in a new world now. A chance to start over. A new universe to conquer and call his own.

Suddenly realizing something, Frieza looked up again, fully noticing now what he had not even acknowledged before; his halo was gone! Thinking about it, Frieza realized that whatever portal he had flown through must have reset his life-force in some way. He was alive again!

"Yes!" Frieza shouted, his arms spreading wide as he bellowed to the sky of this new world. He was in a brand new universe to claim as his own. No more troublesome Saiyans bringing him down. This time, his rule would be absolute. The possibilities were endless!

Frieza pumped his fists into the sky with evil joy. "Yeeeessss!" he shouted again, practically dancing in the air, as he began to wonder where he should start his new conquest.

* * *

Okay, that's it for this chapter. This one and maybe some of the next one might be more DragonBall Z oriented than Teen Titans. These beginning chapters and the interludes are all going to have more of a DBZ feel to them because of their setting, but the other three quarters of this story will deal almost entirely in the Titans World. 

In the next chapter, Starfire will meet Trunks, Goten and Marron for the first time, and the Teen Titans will put aside their grief for the moment as they face down Frieza, not knowing that they haven't a hope in the world for victory, and not knowing that Slade is watching the whole thing. See you guys next chapter.


	4. Chapter 2

**The Coolest Thing To Happen: **

**The Teen Titans/DragonBall Z Crossover**

**By **

**Teen Tyrant

* * *

**

**Chapter 2**

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**Z World**

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Trunks, Goten and Marron all stood in what was considered the front yard of the Capsule Corporation, staring at the sky with their mouths hanging open in a rather cute way. The blue light of the vortex shined down on them as they stared up at it. Trunks knew that neither of his grandparents had noticed the light coming from whatever this was. His grandmother was crazy and was probably baking sweets in the kitchen right next to a window without noticing a change in lighting, while his grandfather was getting senile and was working on yet a new invention to boot, so he wouldn't notice an earthquake, let alone a shining blue light from the sky.

As they continued to stare up at the portal, Goten leaned a little closer to Trunks and whispered the question that was on all of their minds.

"What do you think it is, Trunks?" he asked his life-long friend.

Trunks shrugged. "How should I know, Goten? Do I look like an information center to you?" he asked in his sarcastic tone. Such remarks had often resulted in Trunks being wrongly thought of as a spoiled, smart-mouthed brat. In reality, he was unconsciously mimicking his father's tough attitude and his mothers sharp tongue.

Goten, having received such comments from Trunks since forever and knowing that he meant no insult by it, leaned over to Marron.

"How about you, Marron? Ever heard of anything like this?" he asked, never taking his black eyes off of the sky. Marron shook her head, not taking her own blue eyes off of the spectacle.

"Only in science fiction movies." she answered in her sweet, young girl's voice.

Trunks tilted his head, trying to see the anomaly from a different angle, but it looked the same no matter how you looked at it.

"It looks kind of like a whirlpool, or a tunnel. Like a… a portal or something, I dunno." Trunks said, trying to describe how it appeared to him. His friends both silently agreed with his assessment.

As the three unnaturally gifted children watched, something appeared in the black portion in the center of the vortex. A colored dot, like something was coming from far away and was heading for the mouth of the portal. Deciding to take a closer look, Trunks lifted himself off of the ground with his power, his yellow boots leaving the ground slowly. He began to raise himself faster after a few seconds, and seeing that he was going to go up and look at this whole thing, Goten and Marron also began to fly after him.

------

Starfire continued to struggle with the giant mutated dragonfly that held her, its pincer claws clamped over her arms.

Although Starfire was not very well informed in terms of human culture, she was quite adept at understanding the concept of physics and the space-time continuum. She knew that this thing had just pulled her through some sort of wormhole in space-time, and that she had emerged somewhere else.

Whether this was a different part of her universe or a different universe altogether made no difference to her. All she wanted to do was break free of this insect's grasp and fly back through that weird tunnel of blue energy and time fabric before it closed, cutting her off from her friends for good. And although she could not be sure, she thought she had seen someone pass by her going the other way through the portal… going to the end she had come from.

Starfire kicked at the thorax of the twelve foot long dragonfly, her distress keeping her from summoning up the boundless confidence that allowed her strength to increase to the necessary level.

The dragonfly's wings continued to beat nosily as it tightened its grip on her. As Starfire stared up at the creature, which held her beneath its body, she saw the portal she had just come through become smaller and smaller. In a momentary flash of blue light, the swirling in the sky came to a halt, and the dark hole in the center of it was gone.

Starfired gasped when she realized that her chance to pass back through the portal was gone. She was cut off from her home, stuck here in… wherever this place was.

_My friends! Robin! NO!_ she shrieked in her mind, the thought of being stranded away from the other Titans unbearable to her.

Her eyes glowed brighter green with righteous fury and she fired her eyebolts at the dragonfly. However, she did not aim properly, and the blast merely struck a glancing blow on the beast's head that ricocheted off of its exoskeleton.

The monstrous bug became even more enraged at her attack, and lowered its dripping mandibles towards her face. Starfire cringed back as its inhuman mouth drew closer and closer, preparing to bite the flesh of her beautiful face right off her skull. Starfire struggled in its grip even more frantically, but her panic made her emotions even more chaotic, and her strength only decreased.

Starfire screamed in horror as the insect's mouth was only inches from her face and she turned away, closing her eyes and expecting a vicious pain to consume her cheek at any moment… when a sudden swish sound filled her ears and she felt the mutated bug's claws pried from her arms.

She opened her eyes and saw the dragonfly being hurled through the air away from her. It spun through the air until it was about two thousand feet away, before it finally righted itself and turned around to begin flying back towards her, its flimsy-looking wings beating hundreds of time per second.

The dragonfly had been thrown that great distance by a young boy, who was now hovering in the air five feet away on Starfire's right. Starfire looked at the child in amazement, not only at the feat he had just performed, but at his appearance.

The boy's hair was a shade of very light purple, cut, combed and parted in a presentable way, a few strands of it waving in the air from the lightly blowing wind. He had blue eyes that matched the sky perfectly. He was wearing a green outfit that seemed similar in design to what she had seen humans wear when they were performing martial arts combat, and he wore a pair of yellow and black boots. He appeared to be several years younger than her; twelve years old she guessed, maybe younger. Despite this, he was incredibly well muscled, with a build that was even greater than Robin's, although on a smaller scale.

The boy turned and looked at her, while she stared in disbelief at this child who had just saved her life. He cocked his head to one side, the frown on his face relaxing into a look of concern that she found to be adorably cute on the youngster.

"Are you okay?" he asked her. Starfire could only nod as she was still processing what had just happened. Then, two more children flew up next to the purple-haired boy, both looking at her, then off at the dragonfly still making its way back towards them, then finally at the boy who had saved her.

One of these children was another boy, with black hair that spiked out in all directions, although most of it seemed to curve to one particular side, like the blades of a power saw. He had black eyes, an innocent-looking face, and an orange outfit similar in design to the other boy, with black boots on his feet. Although he wore a blue shirt under the orange outfit, covering his arms and chest, he appeared to be about as muscular as the first boy.

The other child was a girl, looking younger than either of the boys. She wore a denim vest and skirt over a black shirt and pants, with small brown boots on her feet. The girl had pretty blonde hair that was done up in what Starfire recognized as "pigtails" that were tied up with red ribbons, and eyes that were blue, but seemed darker if she did not look closely enough. The strangest thing was, the girl had no nose at all. There was only smooth skin where the nose would be on a normal human.

The boy with black hair spoke to the boy with purple hair. "Wow, that is one ugly bug. Nice throw, Trunks." he said to him.

The other boy, "Trunks" apparently, nodded, but did not look away from Starfire, still scanning her for any injury.

The little girl looked at Starfire and also gained a concerned expression. "Are you hurt?" she asked in the sweet, high-pitched voice a child of her age would have. Starfire shook her head, finally getting over her speechlessness of this strange turn of events.

"I have not sustained any serious injury, although my arms hurt from where the monster grabbed me." she said, rubbing her arms where the dragonfly had latched on to her. The purple-haired boy flew closer to her, pointing a finger at the now empty sky.

"Did you come out of that hole in the sky? You and that thing over there?" he asked her.

Starfire nodded. "Yes. I was taken from my friends by the creature, and it flew into the portal, carrying me along with it." she said sadly. Finally, the significance of three children hovering so high up in the sky with her, dawned on Starfire. Clearly, these children were not human, or if they were, they were not normal. Starfire drifted closer to them, smiling brightly at the three cute youngsters.

"My name is Starfire. I am with the Teen Titans. Who are you?" she asked them.

The purple-haired boy smiled back at her, quite brightly. He floated back a little until he was hovering between the other two.

"My name is Trunks. This is Goten, and this is Marron." he said, pointing his thumbs at the boy and girl next to him, respectively.

Starfire giggled. "You are all so cute! Tell me, how are you capable of flying, and of showing such remarkable strength? And how old are you? You appear to be so young!" she said in excitement and wonder.

The three kids blushed at her compliments and her inquisitiveness. The boy named Goten laughed and put his hand behind his head.

"Well, I'm ten. Trunks is eleven, and Marron is nine. But we're not too young to have our powers. We've been able to fly and fight for years." he said, a huge smile on his face as he seemed to be bragging innocently.

Starfire was surprised that they were so young, yet capable of such abilities. She floated closer still, curiosity peaked.

"But, how did you obtain these pow-" Starfire was cut off as something smacked her hard on the side of the head. The world instantly went black.

------

Trunks dashed forward and caught the falling teenager in his powerful arms, seeming somewhat awkward to be cradling someone twice his height in such a way.

He looked up to see that Goten and Marron were wrestling with the bug, which had flown back to them much faster than they thought it could. The thing had come out of nowhere and smacked the girl in the head when she wasn't looking. They had not gotten the whole story from her yet, so they didn't know if they should kill the bug or not. As it was, Goten was holding on to its claws easily, while Marron flew around its head, poking it as hard as she could here and there to keep it distracted.

Seeing that they'd be able to hold the creature for some time, Trunks began to descend to the ground to see if this girl he was holding was alright.

Trunks touched down in his front yard and set Starfire on the grass, laying her on her back. He kneeled down beside her on one knee.

_Be okay. Please be okay,_ he silently begged.

Although he had only met this girl a minute ago, he had already developed an attachment to her, and knew that Goten and Marron had too. She seemed incredibly nice, and he had been sorry to hear that she had been pulled from her own world against her will by that ugly flying freak. He could tell by the looks on their faces that Goten and Marron had felt the same feeling. It was as if they knew right away that this girl was someone who they could absolutely trust, who had never harmed anyone in her life, and that anything bad that happened to her in even the slightest way was completely undeserved.

Although he was young, Trunks' mother had shown him the basic ways of checking for life signs and first aid, just in case he or someone he knew should become hurt. He had a chance to put that knowledge to use right now.

Trunks lifted the unconscious girl's (_Starfire, she said that her name was Starfire) _arm in his hand and felt her wrist for a pulse. He did find her pulse, steady and strong. Setting her arm back down, he saw that she was breathing regularly. Turing her head, he looked at the spot where she had been hit. The skin there was reddened, but nothing else seemed wrong.

She seemed to be okay, just knocked out from that bug. Sighing in relief, Trunks decided to check one last thing. He reached towards her left eye and pulled up her eyelid. Immediately he let go and pulled back, from astonishment rather than fear. He pulled her eyelid up again and stared. Her eye was vacant, but vibrant, another, although now unnecessary, sign that she was just unconscious, not dead. But what had shocked Trunks so much was the color of her eyes.

So his vision had not been deceiving him a minute ago when he had been talking to her. He had seen what he thought he had seen after all. Her eyes were a bright emerald green color, but not just her irises. Everything in her eye socket was emerald green. He supposed that it had something to do with that green blast of energy he thought he had seen her fire from her eyes, before he had arrived and plucked the monster from her.

Trunks let go of her eyelid and leaned back. Now that he knew she would be alright, and that Goten and Marron had the giant dragonfly busy, his mind began to focus on the girl herself. While they had been talking up above, there had been the little bit of shyness that there always was when meeting someone new. Plus there had been the distant but not forgotten warning going on in his head that the dragonfly was coming back even as they spoke, so Trunks had not been able to really look at her, to focus on her, and he did so now. And the more he looked at her, the more he took her into his vision, the more his fascination and curiosity grew.

He could tell now that she was not human. He had suspected it before, but had not taken enough notice to tell. Although there were humans who could fly and fire energy from their bodies, Marron's father Krillin being a perfect example, most people he knew who could do those things were not human, or not entirely human. This girl, this Starfire, was not human at all. It was very subtle, as whatever species she was greatly resembled a human girl, but Trunks was skilled enough to see past that subtlety. Having lived his life around other Saiyans and half Saiyans, all of whom greatly resembled humans when they did not have their tails, allowed Trunks to make the distinction between humans and beings that merely looked like humans.

Trunks looked along Starfire's still body, noting every feature, taking in her uniqueness to this world. Her hair was bright red, it ran down to the middle of her back, and was very shiny. He didn't know if it was like that naturally or if she used a really good shampoo, but it was very shiny indeed and very soft when he touched it.

He stared at her odd-looking eyebrows for a moment, before looking at her whole face. Although she had been violently knocked out, she seemed as though she were just resting peacefully, the curves of her face relaxed, her breath easing out of her nose and mouth gently.

Her body was thin, but not painfully so. She was not anorexic. In fact, looking closer and gently touching her arm, Trunks could now see and feel that she had a good deal of muscle on her. It wasn't noticeably large, but that meant very little. Trunks' own muscles looked the same size as those of any other earth boy who worked out regularly; but he was capable of lifting several tons with no effort at all. It seemed that this girl was capable of the same thing, although her muscles didn't seem dense enough to be able to lift the same amount of weight he could. But she was certainly very strong indeed, by human standards.

She was wearing an outfit that was mostly purple. The top, miniskirt and boots that went clear to her thighs were all purple. Her collar bone was covered by a grey material that had a green jewel at the very top of her chest. She wore strange grey gloves that seemed meant to cover her forearms rather than her hands, and she had a green jewel on the back of both of them. She had a grey armband on her right arm and a grey belt at the top of her miniskirt.

Trunks ran his hand along the fabric at her shoulder, curiously. He then looked at her bare midsection, between her top and her skirt. That was when he noticed the color of her skin. It was very tanned, so much so that her skin almost appeared orange. He looked at her face, surprised that he had not noticed that before, but her face also had that unusual color. Looking back to her bare stomach, Trunks wondered if that really was her skin color, or if she was coated with something that made it look that way.

Reaching out, he touched her flat belly with the tip of his index finger, running it along her smooth skin for a moment, trying to see if he would rub anything off of her skin and onto his finger. Nothing. That was indeed her true skin color.

Starfire's eyes opened while Trunks was inspecting her. She was coming around now and fought off the darkness that had consumed her so suddenly. Blinking a few times, she looked around, noticing that she was on the ground, and that the boy named Trunks was staring at various parts of her body, his eyes slightly widened, looking as though he had discovered an amazing new species of flower. She felt him touch her midsection for a moment and saw him tilt his head in curiosity at whatever conclusion he had just reached. He continued to look her over, fascinated.

"Trunks," she spoke, "this is not an appropriate time to be admiring my appearance." she said, half-joking.

Trunks jumped back from her, startled at her voice, and fell on his backside. He looked at her in surprise and shook his head back and forth, holding his hands out in front of her, palms first.

"Gah! No! No, no. I was… I was making sure you were okay and I… I just noticed that, um, you're not human, are you?" he said, trying to explain that he was only curious about who and what she was, and had meant no offense by examining her. Starfire stood up.

"You are correct."she informed him. "I am a Tamaranian, from the planet Tamaran."

Trunks rubbed the side of his head. "Sorry. I've never heard of it." he said apologetically.

Starfire tilted her own head in curiosity. "You do not seem to be a human either. What are you, Trunks?" she asked him.

Trunks stood up from the ground and looked up at her. "I'm half human and half Saiyan. I was born here on Earth, but my Saiyan ancestry is from planet Vegeta." he told her.

Starfire shook her head. "I am sorry, but I have not heard of your world either."

Trunks was about to say more, but before he could speak, there was a shout from Marron, still up in the sky.

"Hey Trunks! If you two are done chitchatting, Goten and I could use some help up here!" she yelled down to him.

Realizing that he had forgotten about his friends completely while talking with Starfire, Trunks immediately took to the sky, Starfire following him. Trunks turned his head to speak to her.

"Starfire, is this bug just trying to attack you, or do you need it for something?" he asked.

Starfire shook her head. "No. It was created by one of the enemies of the Titans. It is trying to destroy me. We must destroy it instead."

Trunks nodded. "Okay then." He flew up until he was just as high as the insect, which was still trying pull its own claws from Goten's unbreakable grip, while trying to dodge Marron, who was still flying around its head, poking at it.

"Hey guys, move away!" he said out loud to them. Goten and Marron broke away from the dragonfly and moved back. Trunks raised his hand and leveled it at the dragonfly, before firing a small and relatively weak blast of blue energy from his palm. As the insect turned towards Starfire, its intended target, the blast hit it in the center of its body. The giant bug exploded outward with a gush of yellowish slime and gunk, with pieces of its wings, claws and exoskeleton flying every which way.

Starfire was again astonished. She had blasted at the creature with her own energies, but with her aim being off, it had merely bounced away from it. Trunks had shot it with only a small bit of energy and he had destroyed it completely, and she had no doubt that the result would have been the same if he had hit it dead center or a glancing blow.

Trunks lowered his hand and crossed his arms in unconscious imitation of his father, then turned his head and grinned at Starfire, clearly trying to look as cool as possible in front of the newcomer.

"Trunks." he heard Goten and Marron both say in an irritated tone. Trunks looked over at his two friends and saw that Goten's shirt and Marron's vest had been splashed with a bit of the dragonfly's yellow fluids. They were both glaring at him. Trunks blushed in embarrassment and hung his arms at his sides.

"Oops! Sorry guys. Guess I should have blown it up from another direction." he said, putting one hand behind his head.

Goten and Marron both shook their heads, then looked over at Starfire, who was scanning the sky around them. It seemed she was looking for any sign of the anomaly that the dragonfly had dragged her through, but there was no trace of the portal anywhere.

Suddenly gaining a saddened expression on her face, Starfire lowered herself towards the ground. The children did the same, Goten and Marron trying to brush the yellow slime off of themselves as they went.

As Starfire touched down on the ground, she looked around at the three youngsters.

"I thank you all for your assistance. But now it seems that I am trapped here in this place, wherever this is."

The kids gathered around her, looking up at her with sympathy. Goten spoke.

"I wish there was something we could do to help you, but we don't know what that big hole was either."

Trunks crossed his arms again, frowning and trying to think. "I wish we knew where it came from, where it led to, and how we could open it again."

"I believe that I can give you all the answers to those questions, Trunks." said a pleasant voice. The three children and one teenager looked across the yard and towards the front door of the Capsule Corp. dome. Standing in front of the entrance to Trunks' home was a green skinned young man, with pointy ears and two antenna sprouting from his forehead. He wore a white and brown robe and held a wooden staff in his hand.

Trunks, Goten, and Marron's mouths all fell open in surprise, while Starfire simply stared in curiosity, wondering who this was and if he could help her.

"Dende!" the three kids said at once.

The Earth's guardian nodded his head, the pleasant smile dropping off of his face, to be replaced by a look of concern and worry.

"I know what that portal was and how it got here. But I'm afraid getting young Miss Starfire back home is only one of the problems we face right now. If we could all go inside, I will explain.

**------**

**Titan World**

**------**

Robin watched as the police enforcers loaded Killer Moth into the back of the security van in restraints. After slamming the doors on him, the two officers saluted Robin and the other Titans, hopped into the van, and drove away.

Robin looked around the area of the intersection. Some torn up asphalt and a few street lights and road signs had been torn out of the cement by Raven and Cyborg, but beyond that, the only thing out of place were the bodies of the three dead mutated dragonflies lying around. Cyborg had turned his left hand into a chainsaw and sliced his opponent in two. Raven had wrapped a bubble of her black colored energy around one dragonfly's head and crushed it to a pulp. Beast Boy, in the form of a Pteranodon, had ripped the dragonfly he had been fighting apart with his beak. Robin, after seeing that Starfire had gone through whatever portal had opened in the sky, had attack Killer Moth like a wild man, not letting up until the insectoid criminal had fallen defeated to the concrete sidewalk.

Now that the threat had been dealt with, he and the others could deal with their greatest concern; finding out whatever had happened in the sky, and how they could get Starfire back from it.

He turned to his team. "We need to know what happened to Starfire." he said, absolutely serious. Raven, who had been levitating a few feet above the ground, now lowered herself to it.

"I did sense some unusual energies coming from that wormhole. Some of it felt like magic, while the rest of it felt like some kind of electromagnetic disturbance." she said in her usual monotone, although secretly she was just as worried for her alien friend as the others were.

Cyborg looked down at the panel on his arm. "Yeah, I'm picking up some weird readings lingering around too. Like the flux of the electrons in the atmosphere over the city have shifted somehow. I think the temporal stability of this area has been alter slightly."

Beast Boy scratched his head with one finger, raising an eyebrow. "Um, yeah, that's what I was thinking too." he said, clearly not having a clue what Cyborg was talking about, but willing to take his word for it.

Robin looked back up at the clear sky, then at Cyborg. "What can we do?" he asked.

Cyborg continued to scan readings on his arm. "I think I might be able to open that portal up again, if I can find the right frequency and magnitude of energy to do it. I think the required energy changed slightly from whatever opened it the first time. It might take awhile before I find the exact amount of fired electrons that will open it. But I think I can do it, and when I do, we can go to wherever it leads to and get Starfire." he said, trying to sound as optimistic as he could, knowing that Robin was secretly going out of his mind with worry about Starfire's well-being.

Robin was about to order them all back to the tower so that Cyborg could get to work on finding the frequency, when a huge explosion erupted a few blocks away. The Titans all looked in the direction of the blast, and saw smoke and a large cloud of dust plume up into the air. They knew what the dust signified; a building had collapsed.

"We'll have to wait a little longer to go after Starfire. Let's go see what's up." he ordered.

------

Frieza laughed loudly, feeling better than he had in nearly fifteen years, since his first defeat on planet Namek. He had flown down into the city he had arrived over after entering this dimension, and the first thing he did was target a small building that seemed to be some kind of shop. Pointing a finger at it, he fired a very weak blast of energy at the building, causing its top to explode and the rest of it to crumble in on itself.

He could have caused much greater damage than that. Hell, he could have blasted this whole sorry planet to smithereens in an instant. But he wanted to savor his return to life. Cause little bits of damage, spread fear and panic, watch the inhabitants of this world run for their miserable lives and spread the word of his arrival. Let them all know that he was here, let them all know that their lives as they had known them had now ended and that he was taking over.

And it felt good. He had not been able to cause random havoc in quite some time. And with no Saiyans around to ruin it this time, he'd be able to do anything he wanted. For now, he'd be quite content to start small, with this one city here, and bring it to its knees. Then he'd spread out, taking one city after another, until this whole planet groveled before him. Then he'd pick up the pace a little, take some more planets, build up his armies again, spread out across the universe and make a new empire, every bit as glorious as the one he'd lost in his home universe.

Laughing once again, Frieza lowered himself to the middle of the street, in front of the building he'd just blasted. Crossing his arms, he looked to his left, seeing a group of people he recognized as humans. Some were running from him, while others were standing and gawking in fear, pointing at him. He smiled, liking the smell of fear emanating from them. Oh yes, he was going to enjoy every minute of his second chance.

"Who are you!" shouted a young voice from his right. Turning his head the other way and still grinning, Frieza looked upon four young people who looked more or less human. One was about as tall as he was, with black hair that was spiked back (like a Saiyan, he noted irritably), and wearing a uniform of red, green, yellow and black. He had a mask covering his eyes.

On his right side stood a boy even smaller than Frieza, who's skin was entirely green. The boy had pointy ears, and seemed to have fangs in his mouth (like a Namek, he noted irritably). He was wearing a black and purple spandex suit.

On the leading boy's left stood a female who wore a skin tight black outfit and a blue cloak that had a hood which covered her face. Two purplish/bluish eyes stared out from the shadows of the hood.

Behind them all, towering over them, stood a dark skinned boy who was half flesh, half robotic implants. Arms, legs, shoulders, torso, and half of his head all held metal plating and some parts that glowed blue with circuitry underneath plastic covering. A cyborg. Having been one himself for a brief period of time before his mortal demise, Frieza actually felt a moment's sympathy, but only for a moment.

The four youths stood in a clear battle pattern. So, these were the defenders of this world. Frieza turned to face them, a smirk spreading across his black lips. He'd have fun knocking them down from whatever pedestals they'd placed themselves on. He'd even let them live and walk away from this encounter. If they thought they could step in and stop him, then he'd show them otherwise, and let them live to think about it, to wallow in the reality of defeat.

"Well," he began, chuckling lightly. "It seems that I have some company."

The Titans beheld this strange being, ready for the fight that they could tell was coming. This was one weird looking dude, they all silently agreed on that. He was about Robin's height, with skin that was mostly pure white, with some purple at the chest, shoulders and on top of his head, which was smooth, hairless, and round. Two "ears" that looked like cups turned outward stuck out from his egg-like head. He had three toes on delicate looking feet, and a long, sinewy tail, giving him a bit of a reptilian look. He had black lips, and red eyes that seemed to pierce them all. His voice carried both a masculine and feminine quality, making them unsure if he was even a "he" at all, or if it was some kind of unisexual being. The smirk on his face, set of his shoulders, and tone of voice, gave an air of confidence, arrogance, and malevolence.

Robin pulled out his staff and extended it. "We're the Teen Titans. You seem to be new here, so let me warn you, you do not want to mess with us. Especially not today." Robin said, eager to finish this up and get to opening the portal again to go after Starfire.

Frieza's tail tip flopped this way and that on the ground as he stared back at them. "Well, so nice to meet you. My name is Frieza, and I am your new master." he said to them, grinning evilly.

Cyborg charged up his sonic cannon, feeling like he was going to need to use it soon. "Man, you obviously aren't from around here. Otherwise, you'd know that you ain't the first one to tell us something like that." he said, scanning the guy with his electronic eye, confused and a bit concerned about the energy readings he was getting from him.

Frieza chuckled again. "Correct. I am not from here. I just arrived in this universe through a portal opened by a friend."

Robin gritted his teeth. "You mean, you came through that hole that opened in the sky a while ago?" Robin asked, wondering if he could beat some info on reopening it out of this guy. The sooner he could get Starfire back and know that she was okay, the better he'd feel.

Frieza nodded. "Yes, I did come through that portal. And I am looking to make this place my new home." he said, sweeping his hands around the area, indicating the whole of this reality.

Raven frowned and lowered her head a little. "Did you see anyone going through the wormhole as you were coming through it? One of our friends was dragged into it by a monster." she said, hoping that this "Frieza" could give them some information on what happened to Starfire.

Frieza seemed to think about it for a moment, then he answered. "Actually, yes. I did see a young female with red hair being carried passed me by a large insect. I take it that she was the friend you lost?" he said. Frieza then formed his hands into fists, tired of talking. "The universe that I come from is full of very powerful beings, my young friends. And for a long time, I was the greatest of them all. I warn you, I intend to make that right my own once again, by any means necessary." He then bent his knees slightly, taking a fighting stance, his tail curling up over his head.

Robin also took a fighting stance, Cyborg aimed his cannon forward, Raven's eyes began to glow white, and Beast Boy transformed himself into a rhinoceros.

"If it's a fight you want, then that's what you'll get!" Robin said to him, centering his opponent up with his staff. "Titans, go!" he shouted, and as one, the Titans rushed forward.

Frieza braced himself as the Titans came for him. Robin was in the lead, and he struck first. Swinging his staff around as hard as he could, Robin slammed the staff into Frieza's torso… where it bent against his body, almost wrapping around him as it did so. Robin's eyes widened so much that his mask seemed to widen with them. Smirking, Frieza lifted his fingers in front of Robin's stunned face and flicked his finger against Robin's forehead. Robin went sailing a good fifty feet at the very least, landing far down the street, out cold when he hit the ground.

This happened in the space of four seconds, and Frieza turned to Beast Boy, who had seen what happened to Robin, but had not been able to slow down his rhino's charge in time. Frieza reached out and grabbed Beast Boy's horn in one hand, then grabbed the side of his face with the other. He swung the green rhino to his right and let go, letting the animal fly through the air, only to smash into the first floor of an office building across the street. Beast Boy's rhino form slid along the floor inside the building, plowing through desks and office furniture The people inside, watching the battle through the widows, scrambled frantically to get out of his way.

Seeing Robin and Beast Boy defeated so easily, Cyborg was enraged. He aimed his sonic cannon right at Frieza's face and fired. The blast of supersonic vibration was deflected with one swing of Frieza's arm, flying harmlessly into the air. Frieza then flew right at Cyborg, covering the distance between them in less than a second. He struck with the flat of his palm against Cyborg's chest. Cyborg was picked up by the force of the impact and sent flying through the air, only to come down a moment later along the sidewalk and tear a twenty foot long trench right through the solid concrete, as if it was as yielding as water.

A car encased in dark energy came down on Frieza's head, but the metal of the vehicle crumpled and gave in as it came down on him, and instead of squashing him flat, Frieza's body tore a hole right through the car. When the car met the street again, Frieza stood exactly as he had before, like nothing had happened, his head sticking out of the roof of the car.

Sweeping his arms out, the car shattered to pieces that were flung from his white and purple body in all directions. Turning his attention to Raven, Frieza smirked as the astonished empath stared at him, unable to believe her eyes. Lifting a finger, Frieza fired a mild blast of energy at her.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" Raven chanted frantically, encasing herself in a bubble of black energy. The blast met the shield, and although it did not penetrate, the bubble immediately cracked along its entire surface, her energy defusing a moment later as the bubble shattered. Suddenly, Frieza was simply _there_. He was standing in front of her in less than a second. He thrust his knee up casually, hitting Raven in the stomach.

Raven's eyes widened in sudden pain, and as Frieza pulled his knee away, Raven clutched her abdominal region, squeezed her eyes shut, and collapsed onto the hard asphalt.

Smirking down at her, Frieza softly said, "Until next time." Then he took to the air and began to fly towards the heart of the city, not really caring about where he was going or what he would do next, but knowing that it was going to be fun.

While Cyborg was pulling himself out of the sidewalk in disbelief, Beast Boy reverting to human form and shaking his stunned head, and Raven still holding her pained stomach, none of them were paying too much attention to the spot where Robin had landed unconscious.

From the rooftop of a building beside the street, leaped two humanoid figures. They looked like ninjas; dressed in all black, with some silver lining on their legs, arms and shoulders. Their heads were black and round, but an orange circle sat in the middle of their faces. Their eyes were white slits. Had any of the three conscious Titans seen these beings, they would immediately have recognized them. After all, they had fought them many times before.

The two minions reached down, one grabbing hold of Robin's arms, the other grabbing his legs. Making sure no one was watching, the two slipped into a nearby alley, taking the unconscious Boy Wonder with them.

------

As Frieza flew above the rooftops of Jump City's business district, he thought he saw suspicious movement down on one of the rooftops. Perhaps he was being followed. Smiling at the thought of some fool trying to track him down and attempt to defeat him, Frieza decided to let whoever it was meet him face to face.

Lowering himself down onto the building's roof, Frieza stood facing the far edge, which was hidden in the shadow of the building right next to this one, which was much taller. Whoever it was could conceal themselves in the shadows very well, as Frieza could not see anyone in them. However, he was certain that he had seen something move in them before.

Crossing his arms, Frieza smirked and stared into the shadows. "Well? You've come so far to follow me, don't you want to meet me now." He said arrogantly. A deep, calm, somewhat sinister voice answered back.

"I was quite impressed with the little show you put on. I've never seen anyone defeat the Titans so easily. You should be commended for your achievement."

Frieza's eyes narrowed, but his smirk turned into a full grin. "Is that right?" he asked.

Then, he could see the owner of the voice moving in the shadows, stepping towards the light.

"Absolutely. Even for a being from another realty, it should be no easy task to defeat the Teen Titans. And yet you did, in a rather satisfying way." The man then stepped out of the shadows for Frieza to see him. Nearly two feet taller than Frieza, the man was dressed in black, with a sort of utility belt running from his shoulder on one side, down to his hip on the other. He wore a metal mask, the right side being black in color and having no eyehole, the left side a dark orange color and a narrowed eyehole that revealed a cunning, gray-colored eye. There were vertical slits in the mask where a mouth would be, presumable for breathing and allowing speech to carry through the mask.

The man held his hands behind his back, but there was an air of menace about him that Frieza could detect quite well, having been in the presence of many such people before. While he was certain that he could defeat this man if he proved to be a threat, he wasn't quite sure what the man had up his sleeve. Even at a glance, he came across as a man who had several backup plans for every situation, and was very good at casting a deceptive appearance of humility about him. He was dangerous, that much was clear.

"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Slade. And you are… Frieza, I believe is the name you gave to the Titans."

Frieza's hands became fists, ready for a fight if it looked like one was coming, although at this point, he could not tell.

"Yes. And to what do I owe the pleasure, Mr. Slade?" he said, somewhat mockingly.

Slade's eye narrowed, although in malice or delight was unknown. "I wish to help you." he said plainly.

Frieza blinked, unsure what to make of that. "Help me? Why would I require your help?"

Slade took a few steps towards Frieza, lowering his arms to his sides. "Because, you think you have won already. I assure you, that is a great mistake. While I am certain that your strength and level of power is greater than any other being here in this world, that will not be enough. The Titans underestimated you back there, but they will not make such a grave mistake again. And they are not the only defenders of this world. There are many, many others. And they have not lived as long as they have, survived against people like you and I as long as they have, simply by being stronger than their enemies. Many of them are in fact much weaker than their enemies are. I do not know what kind of battles you may have fought in your own universe, but in this one, many of the battles fought and won are done so by the mind, not the sword."

Slade began to walk in a circle around Frieza, his single cold eye never leaving the alien reptile.

"In order to defeat the defenders of this world, you will need to outsmart them. I can tell you, from my own experience, that having greater power than your enemies will not lead you to victory. You will need to think better, plan better, and strategize better than this world's heroes. That is why I wish to help you. I know the heroes of this planet. And a few that are not from this planet. I know their weaknesses, how they think, and how they fight. I am willing to aid you in your desire for conquest. All I would ask in return is allowing me to rule over this planet once you have established your empire. Such a small planet compared to many others in the cosmos, and with a dominion of many worlds, you would not really miss this one, would you?"

Frieza leaned back on his tail like a kickstand, listening intently to Slade's offer as the man continued.

"I am willing to offer my knowledge and my equipment to help you defeat the Titans and the other defenders of this world. And I ask nothing more than this one planet. I am proposing an alliance." Slade stopped in front of Frieza, staring right at him. He slowly put out his right hand. "What do you say, Frieza? Do we have a deal?" He kept his single cold eye on Frieza's piercing red ones.

Frieza stared at Slade's hand for a moment. What the man said did make sense. He knew nothing about this universe. Even if there were no Saiyans to surpass his power, he still might have some great challenges here. If this "Slade" was willing to offer assistance and knowledge to help his conquest along, why should he not take it? And then, once the resistance of this planet had been dealt with…

Frieza looked up into Slade's eye and his face broke out into a grin of pure evil. He took Slade's hand and shook it, matching the man's powerful grip. "I accept." he said in his raspy, unigender voice.

Frieza continued to grin, and behind his mask, Slade grinned evilly as well. Both suspected that in the other's mind, a plot for treachery had already begun to hatch. They were both right.

* * *

That's it for now. With Chapter 3, Starfire and the young Z-Warriors will make plans to head back over to her world and stop Frieza. Meanwhile, after the Titans recover themselves and try to figure out what happened to Robin, they'll be faced with Frieza and a whole army of supercharged Slade minions under his command. Things are starting to heat up, and it won't be long before the Teen Titans and the children of the Z-Warriors will be fighting side by side. And about time someone made it happen too, as these two shows are so popular, they are just begging to be crossed over. See you guys at the next chapter, coming fairly soon, although exaclty when, who knows. 


	5. Chapter 3

**The Coolest Thing To Happen: **

**The Teen Titans/DragonBall Z Crossover**

**By **

**Teen Tyrant

* * *

**

**Chapter 3**

------

**Z World**

------

"And after escaping Hell, Frieza then flew through the portal that brought Starfire here. He is now in her universe." Dende finished. The three children and one teenager stared at him, awestruck.

After going inside the Capsule Corp. headquarters building, Dende had sat the four of them down and began explaining to them just what had caused the portal to open. He began with telling them how Babidi had attempted to break free from Hell by opening a doorway between the afterlife and this world.

He told them of the battle between the Hell guardians and the inmates. About how Frieza had used the opportunity to escape. Being the guardian of Earth, and having contact with the authorities of the afterlife, Dende had been following the events telepathically, but Frieza had escaped through the dimensional portal before he could take any action to prevent him from doing so. Now, one of the greatest criminals of this universe was running loose in another.

"Great." Trunks said, looking down at the table he and the others sat around in the kitchen.. "Frieza. My dad told me about him. This is not good."

"Yeah, my brother told me about him too." Goten said in agreement. Marron also nodded, as her father had told her about the infamous Frieza as well.

Starfire looked at them all in confusion. "Please, who is this Frieza you speak of?" she asked.

Dende turned to her. "Frieza was a galactic warlord who ruled a large portion of this universe for many decades. The last world he attacked was my home world, the planet Namek. It wasn't until that time, nearly fifteen years ago, that he was finally defeated, by Goten's father, Goku. Frieza survived and came here to Earth a year later to seek revenge, but he was defeated again, and finally killed."

Trunks looked up at Dende, wondering why he didn't mention exactly how Frieza had been killed. He knew the story. But, he supposed that it was too much unnecessary detail at the moment.

Starfire looked worried. "So now this Frieza has entered my home dimension? If he is as dangerous as you say, then he may hurt my friends. I must get home and help them." she said, her voice sounding desperate.

Dende nodded his green head. He then looked at the three children. "I will have to contact your parents. We'll need to form a plan." He closed his eyes and was about to send out a telepathic message to the vacationing adults, when his thoughts were interrupted by Trunks.

"No! No, don't bother them, Dende. Our parents haven't had a real vacation in a long time and they deserve this one. The last thing they need is to be interrupted by something like this. That's why _we're_ going to take Starfire home and bring Frieza back." he said, indicating towards, Goten, Marron, and himself.

Dende's mouth fell open. "Trunks! That's too dangerous. You expect me to let you kids take on Frieza yourselves?"

Trunks waved a hand and scoffed at him. "What are you talking about? You know how strong Frieza was when he died, and I'll bet you anything that he hasn't improved that much since he's been dead. You know that I'm already way stronger than he ever was. Plus, with Goten, Marron, Starfire and her friends, Frieza won't stand a chance. We don't need to bring our parents into this."

Goten was getting excited. "Yeah, we can do it! My dad beat Frieza before, and I'm stronger than my dad was at the time he did it. It'll be no problem."

"Yes, I think we should do it. Besides, I want to see this other world that Starfire comes from." Marron said, just as excited as her two male friends.

Trunks thought for a moment. "All we need is figure out a way to open that portal again. Got any ideas, Dended?" he asked.

Dende put out a hand to halt him. "Hold on Trunks, not so fast. I can open that portal again myself, since I know the spell for doing such a thing. But, the rules of my guardianship prevent me from doing it more than once. Since Frieza broke a dimensional rule by going through it, I am allowed to do it again if it aids in bringing him back. But once it is opened, it will have to be closed almost immediately, as the risk of leaving it open is too great. Even if you do manage to get Starfire back to her world, you will be stuck there yourselves."

Starfire looked from Dende to Trunks. "He is correct, Trunks. The portal closed as soon as I entered this universe. If it does so again, you will be trapped in my universe. I do not want the three of you to endanger yourselves for me." she said, concerned for her new young friends' well being.

Trunks turned to her and smiled. "Don't worry Starfire, we'll just find a way to open it again from your side. Besides, I've got an idea." He then stood up and walked over to Dended. Beaconing him to lean down, Trunks whispered in his ear for a moment. After listening to him, Dende straightened up with a slight smile on his face.

"You know Trunks, it is easy to tell that you are the son of a genius. Your mother must be proud of you. That is a brilliant idea. It's risky, but brilliant, if you can pull it off."

Trunks grinned. "I think we can." he said confidently.

Dende nodded. "Alright. I'll go take care of that then. What will you tell your grandparents?" he asked.

Trunks shrugged. "They don't even know what's going on. My grandpa's in his workshop and I don't even know where my grandma is right now. They'll probably be worried about us, but we'll take care of all of that when we get back. We need to get going as soon as we can. There's no telling what Frieza is up to over in Stafire's universe."

Dende nodded. "I'll be quick then." Walking out of the kitchen, Dende headed for the front door. As he opened it, Goten called to him.

"Dende? If you're going anywhere close to my house, could you bring my dad's Power Pole back with you? I know how to use it, and we might need it against Frieza." he requested.

Dende nodded. "Sure. Anything else you think you might need for your trip? Marron, what about you?" Goten and Marron shook their heads. Then Goten got another idea and ran over to Dende. He motioned for him to lean down and whispered something into his ear. Dende frowned and gave Goten a questioning look, then nodded. Goten went back to the others.

"I think I can pack a few things we might need from here. Get back soon, Dende." Trunks said, frowning over what Goten could have asked Dende for. Dende nodded, waved, and then flew off into the sky.

Starfire stood up from the kitchen table and clasped her hands. "I thank you all for your help. You are very brave children to risk yourselves in order to help me. I am a stranger to you, and yet you are going to risk never coming home again for my sake. How may I repay you?" she asked, her green eyes sparkling.

The kids all smiled back at her. Trunks sat back down again. "Well, you could tell us about your world. Your friends and what we will see over in your dimension." Goten and Marron nodded in agreement.

Starfire giggled that wonderful giggle of hers and sat down at the table again, looking around at all of them. She then proceeded to tell them her story, from her early years with the war between Tamaran and the Citadel, to when she met the other Titans, to the recent events that had led her to this universe. And when she was done, the children began to tell her their stories.

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**Titan World**

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Frieza looked around Slade's secret lair. Buried somewhere underneath the city, it was well hidden from the world above. Frieza was impressed with its atmosphere, except for the annoying sound of gears turning; gears that seemed to have no purpose or function except to turn endlessly. Slade had some kind of weird obsession with gears.

The place was mostly dark, lit here and there by lights from the ceiling. On one wall were a number of large screens that monitored various parts of the city from the small, robotic cameras that Slade had set up all around the region.

Lining another wall was a row of inactive robots that resembled Slade himself, although they had an orange circle in the middle of their faces, rather than masks that were half black, half orange.

A large door was set next to this row of robots, and Slade had said that he kept a stockpile of weapons, robots, and other little toys within the large space beyond that door.

Frieza turned his attention back to Slade, who stood with his arms behind his back, watching one of the screens. On it, the three remaining Teen Titans were scanning the area where their battle with Frieza had taken place. They were looking for their leader, the boy who had been dressed in bright colors. Frieza was wondering about it himself.

"Where do you think their leader is?" he asked Slade.

Slade turned his head slightly in his direction. "Oh, you mean Robin? He's right here." he answered, lifting a hand and pushing a button on a remote that he held in it.

To their left, the floor in Slade's lair opened up into a circular hole. A bubble rose out of it, a bubble that seemed to be made of some yellow material that was clear enough to see through. It stopped rising and Frieza now saw that it was actually a dome, as there was flooring underneath the shell. Inside, the boy Slade had called Robin was laying on the floor of his little cell.

Stirring, Robin slowly lifted his head, looking around. Slowly, he put his hands on the ground and pushed himself up, until he could get his legs under himself and stand fully. Tilting from one side to the other for a moment, Robin looked around at his surroundings. He examined the dome that was around him, putting his hand on it and feeling it. Seeing Frieza and Slade standing not too far from where he was, Robin frowned.

"What am I doing here?" he asked out loud. Slade turned towards him and began to slowly walk closer.

"My minions brought you here shortly after Frieza knocked you out, Robin. You are my guest once again, although you do not have the privileges you had last time. I intend to keep you here until I see just how well your friends stand up to Frieza without you to guide them. With no tactical leadership, and your precious Starfire gone through the portal that opened, unable to provide emotionally uplifting platitudes, your friends will be lost."

Robin lowered his head a little, and his tone took on a more dangerous quality. "And when you've seen what you wanted to see? Then what?" he demanded.

Slade narrowed his eye. "That depends on your cooperation, Robin. I may allow you to serve as my apprentice again. But if you resist, I may just have to eliminate you. With Frieza agreeing to allow me to have control of the Earth after we have conquered it, I will have the option of picking any apprentice I want."

Robin looked to Frieza, standing slightly behind Slade. "You've allied yourself with _him_? It's a mistake Frieza. He won't hesitate to stab you in the back." he said, hoping to drive a wedge of distrust between the two. Frieza chuckled and stepped around Slade, closer to the dome.

"Now now, my young friend. Don't you worry yourself about that. You have your own problems to worry about at the moment. Besides, do you think I'd have made this deal if I thought my new friend here would go back on his word? With Slade's knowledge, I'll be able to take this planet in no time. And with so many others to take after that, there's no reason why I can't let him have this one. I believe it to be a fair trade. What would there be to gain from a double-cross?" Although Frieza sounded sincere in this speech, he knew well what Robin was getting at, and had a little plan of his own.

Slade turned and began walking towards the robots that were standing silent on the far side of the room.

"Now then, it is time to deal with the Titans. Frieza, if you could step over here, there is something I need you to do." he said.

Frieza smirked one last time at Robin, who glared back in anger, before turning away and moving over to Slade and his robots. Slade was standing in front of a control console next to the first robot in line. Pushing a few buttons, a panel on the console slid open and out rose a round object, like a blue-tinted crystal ball. It was connected by a metal stem and wires to the console.

Frieza frowned. "What is that?"

Slade pointed to the robots. "Each of my minions here are connected by special cables to this console. I want you to put your hand on this orb and pass some of your energy into it. Your power will be carried into these robots, increasing their own energy supply, making them a little stronger and faster than they are now. If it is successful, I will increase the energy allowance and make the next group be able to hold an even larger charge."

Frieza was still frowning and he looked at Slade skeptically. "What is the point of doing this?" he asked, slightly irritated.

Slade remained patient. "In order to run an empire, you need an army. Needless to say, you have no followers as of yet. I will program these robots to follow your orders and mine. If you increase their power, they will be able to fight for you when you do not wish to do it yourself. If you give some of your power to them, I'll send them to fight the Titans with you, and we will see how the three of them stand up to you and these improved bots."

Frieza thought about it for a moment, and then nodded, thinking that it was a fairly good idea. It would be nice to have some underlings to give commands to. Putting out a hand, he rested it on top of the orb. Focusing, his hand began to glow pink with his own personal energy. He only used a very small amount, as his power was so great that he could short-out this machine in an instant.

The energy filled the orb, then that pinkish glow began to flow along the wires that ran out the back of the console and into each of the robots that stood along the wall. As the power coursed from Frieza into them, they also began to gain a subtle pink glow. When Frieza gave what he felt was enough power, he stopped and pulled his hand away. The pink glow disappeared from the equipment and the robots.

Slade smiled behind his mask. Now his robots were even more powerful. Besides that, the orb had also taken readings on Frieza's specific type of energy, as well as a sample of his DNA. Slade was making sure he knew as much about Frieza as he could without letting on that he knew… just in case.

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**Z World**

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Starfire was left speechless after the long session of story telling with the three young children. What shocked her the most was the fact that all three of them had been _killed_ years ago by an enemy they called Majin Buu. These three precious kids had been murdered, along with all the other inhabitants of Earth? It seemed impossible that such an evil could exist, yet she knew that such depravity did exist even in her own universe, unfortunate truth that it was.

She understood the concept of the Dragon Balls that Trunks had explained to her, but even with a means to bring people back from the dead, it did not make it any less monstrous that anyone would want to hurt these young ones. She felt that much more attached to them now than ever, and had an even greater respect for their decision to go to her universe with her, to stop the old enemy of their fathers.

She had asked them to tell her all they could of this Frieza, who she now realized as the person she had briefly seen pass her in the passageway between her dimension and this one. She had listened as each of them explained what they had learned from their parents about their battle with the creature.

Apparently, Trunks and Marron's fathers had both been killed by Frieza, while Goten's father and brother had managed to barely survive their battles with him. Goten's father Goku had eventually triumphed over Frieza, the first person to ever do so, although he was separated from his family for a year by the encounter.

Frieza had then come to earth as a creature that was part flesh, part robot, which in turn led Starfire to imagine Cyborg's robotic parts on the being she had seen in the portal, leading to a somewhat amusing image.

It had seemed that Frieza would destroy the Earth, but then Trunks, an older Trunks from the _future_ arrived and killed him by cutting him in half with a sword! Starfire tried to imagine this cute little boy with the purple hair as a young man carrying a sword and slicing through someone's flesh, but found it difficult to picture. Blowing up an mutated dragonfly with an energy blast was one thing, but slicing someone open with a blade? Starfire simply couldn't see it.

She also felt sorry for Goten, who had gone seven years of his life without knowing his father, only to meet him the day that the Majin Buu had arrived in their world. She was happy to learn that he had been granted the privilege of forming a bond with his father over the last three years. It was a shame such a fortuitous turn of events could not have happened to her, but she was grateful just to have met Robin and the other Titans.

The children seemed to be equally shocked when she had told them that she had been held in slavery for many years. Trunks particularly seemed appalled, showing a frown of anger upon hearing the story.

Her life story took a happier turn for them to hear, when she told them of her meeting with the Titans. There were amused giggles as she explained her first encounter with Robin, surprised gasps as she told of the treachery of Blackfire turning her over to the Centauri Police, and pure uncontrollable laughter with the tale of how she and Raven had become trapped in one another's bodies.

After they had all shared these stories and others, Marron finally said, "These Titans sound really cool. And your friend Cyborg sounds like he's the same as my mom. She's mostly machine too."

Goten nodded, and grinned. "Yeah, they all sound awesome. I can't wait to meet them when we go over to your world. And that Robin guy sounds like he's your boyfriend, huh?" he said with a laugh, looking at her for confirmation. Trunks, who had his elbows on the table and his chin resting in the palms of his hands as he had listened to Starfire's story, now lifted his head up a little and looked at Goten as he said this and then back to Starfire, surprised that he had not picked up on that either.

Starfire stared back for a moment, before saying, "You are correct. Robin is my friend, and he is a boy. Therefore, he is my boy friend." she said, smiling too widely, a slight blush on her face, unnoticeable to the kids. Her face then lost some of its brightness.

"He is my best friend. And my other friends are dear to me too. I hope that this Frieza has not harmed them." Gaining a serious expression, she stood up from the table. "I must get home and help them. What is taking your friend Dende so long? Time is of the essence." she said fiercely.

The kids drew back a little at her sudden anger, then decided that they had indeed spent too much time talking. Dende had been gone for an hour and a half, and there was no telling what Frieza could be up to in that other dimension.

Trunks moved nearer to Starfire and took her hand, smirking up at her with confidence.

"Don't worry, Starfire. Once we get you back over there, Frieza's going to have to answer to us. Boy is he going to be surprised when he sees us. Goten and Marron look enough like their dads that he'll know who they are, and I'm sure he's going to remember me." he said in amusement. Goten and Marron also moved around the table to stand next to Starfire, and Marron took her other hand.

"Yeah, between us and you Titans, he's going down for sure." she said to her.

Starfire smiled down at them, feeling a sense of hope despite not knowing what was happening in her world. After hearing about the past of these children and their parents, she was fairly certain that they had more than enough power to get rid of Frieza, and indeed, with the aid of the Titans, victory seemed already guaranteed.

At that moment, there was a knock on the front door in the living room. Dende stepped in through the door, carrying a blue bag in one hand.

"I'm back." he announced. The kids and Starfire went into the living room to meet with him.

From upstairs came a woman's cheerful voice. "Trunks, could you be a dear and see who's at the door?" the voice said.

Trunks turned towards the living room stairs. "Sure grandma!" he called up, then rolled his eyes and shrugged. Marron and Starfire giggled.

Dended handed the bag to Trunks. "There you go Trunks." he said.

"Thanks." Trunks responded, before pushing a button on the side of the bag and setting it on the floor. The bag disappeared in a cloud of yellow smoke. A moment later, the smoke cleared and the bag was gone, replaced by a small object that was cylindrical and had a button on one end. Trunks picked up the object and tucked it into his belt.

"What is that?" Starfire asked.

"A capsule. My grandfather invented them. Or do you mean what was in the bag? That's just a little insurance policy, in case we need some help. The less you guys know about it the better, just in case Frieza were to find out." Trunks said, crossing his arms and grinning secretively. Starfire tilted her head in curiosity, as did Marron and Goten, wondering what Trunks was up to.

Dende took a strap off of his shoulder, to reveal a red wooden stick in a holster slung across his back. He handed it out to Goten.

"Here's the Power Pole." Goten took it from him and slid the strap over his own shoulder, placing the Power Pole on his back. Dende then reached into a pocket of his robe and took something out, but it was small and could not be seen in his closed fist. He held his hand out to Goten, who took the object and immediately covered it with both hands, as he tucked it into his own belt. The others looked at him curiously.

"My own, uh, whatever policy. In case of real trouble. We probably won't have to use it, but if we do, then things will be really bad. So let's hope that we don't' have to use it." he said vaguely. Trunks couldn't believe that Goten was actually getting crafty on him, but since he had a secret of his own, then he supposed that Goten could have one.

"Okay," Trunks began. "I'm going to pack some food and stuff into a backpack and take it with us. Just in case we can't get back over here right away. Plus, I'll put that capsule in there, so that I don't lose it. We can leave it at that tower of yours, Star." he said, then ran up the living room stairs to his room to get his backpack. Starfire was surprise to hear Trunks calling her by her nickname. It was a sign that he and the others had already accepted her as a good friend.

Starfire looked at Dende. "Will you really be able to open the portal again?" she asked, hoping that he really was capable of doing it again.

Dende nodded. "Yes, but only once. I have the spell to open it again, but once I do, it will need a new spell to open it. I only know of two, and one has already been used by Babidi. But even if I did know of another spell to open it, I am bound by my responsibilities as Guardian to only do this once."

Starfire nodded, hoping that they would be able to find a way to reopen the portal from her reality so that the children could go home again. Perhaps Raven could open it.

Trunks came running down the stairs and headed for the kitchen. After a few minutes he came back out, the backpack in place on his back.

"Okay, time to get this show on the road."

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**Titan World**

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Cyborg checked his scanners again. There was no trace of Robin anywhere. Raven, floating above the ground with her eyes close, concentrating, now looked at him and shook her head.

"I can feel his presence, but it's not anywhere nearby." she said, lowering herself back to the ground.

A green hound dog was sniffing along the ground in the spot where Robin had landed after his failed attack on Frieza, and then straightened up and pointed its nose at an alley close to the spot. Beast Boy reverted back to normal, then turned to his two fellow Titans.

"Robin went this way, but I don't think he was alone. There's no trace of his scent on the ground, so I think someone carried him away. And there's something familiar about the smell. I can't put my finger on it, but I'd swear I've smelled it somewhere before. And it's not a human smell; more like a machine." he said, shaking his head and shrugging.

Cyborg put his hands on his head and looked like he was about to pull his electronic brain right out in frustration.

"Well ain't this great! Starfire's gone through some dimensional rift and we don't know where she is or if she's okay, Robin's disappeared altogether and we don't know if _he's_ okay, and we've got some psycho alien dude running around who whooped our butts in less than a minute without breaking a sweat and could be causing who knows what kinda trouble! Could today get any worse?" he shouted.

"Still looking for your fallen friend?" said a raspy, feminine sounding voice. The Titans all looked up to the roof of one of the smaller buildings behind them, across the street. Frieza stood there, his arms crossed and his tail wrapped around his left leg.

Raven looked at Cyborg. "You had to ask." she said in sarcastic monotone. The three teens stood together and readied battle stances, although they didn't know what they could do.

Frieza grinned. "I'm afraid Robin's wings have been clipped. He's in the birdcage now." he said, then laugh maniacally.

Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "Oh man, even I can come up with better jokes than that." he said, frowning at the alien.

"Where's Robin?" Raven demanded.

Frieza continued to smirk down at them. "He's enjoying the hospitality of my new friend." he said. Suddenly, eight robotic ninjas leaped onto the roof from behind the building, and took up positions next to Frieza. The Titans recognized them instantly.

"Now way!" Beast Boy exclaimed in disbelief.

Cyborg narrowed his eyes. "You're working for Slade!" he said, not believing it either.

Frieza frowned, insulted at the idea that he would work _for_ anyone.

"Working _with_ him, actually. Your old friend Mr. Slade has provided with me with a great deal of knowledge about the resistance I will face in this world, as well as an army to help me speed up my conquest. He's holding your bird boy prisoner as insurance." Frieza said, still smirking.

The robots began to glow a subtle pink color, the same pink energy that Frieza had fired at Raven earlier. Cyborg began to scan them with his electronic eye, not liking what his sensors were telling him one bit.

"Oh boy. This is not good, not good at all." he said, a single sweat drop rolling down the human side of his face.

Beast Boy grumbled. "Aw, man! It's not even nine o'clock yet and already this day has gone bad."

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**Z World**

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On the Capsule Corp. front lawn, Dende, Starfire, Trunks, Goten and Marron had all gathered, ready to begin the trial ahead of them. Starfire gazed around at the city that Trunks' home was centered in. It was very different from Jump City, as there were hardly any rectangular buildings. In their place were domes and buildings that looked like giant white versions of the human candy called lollipops, and everywhere there were cars that were floating above the ground, rather than resting on wheels. An incredible world these children had; it was a pity that she did not have time to see a little more of it.

Before he opened the portal, Dende had to know something.

"Trunks, what do I tell your parents if you cannot come back right away and they find out about this?" he asked, worried at what Vegeta, Chichi and Number 18 would do to him if they found out and their spouses could not or would not control them.

Trunks thought about it. "My grandparents probably won't think anything strange is going on for a few days, if I know them." he said, not wanting to sound disrespectful, but unable to deny that his grandparents were both in their own little worlds and rarely ever came back to good old Earth. "But if they do, they'll call our parents. If we don't get back in time, then just tell them the truth. We'll find a way back, that's for sure. But don't go bugging our parents about this unless they get back and we're still not here. If it goes good, then they'll never have to know we were gone." he said.

Dended frowned worriedly. "You are leaving me in a more dangerous situation than the one you will be in." he said.

Starfire looked down at the children, then at the Namek. "Dende, these children are risking their lives to help me get home, and to rid my world of a terrible menace. I promise you that I will do all I can to look after them and get them home safely." she said to him.

Dende nodded. "Okay. Well, here goes." he said. Closing his eyes, he concentrated, golden energy surrounding his hands. He lifted his hands and thrust them at the sky, silently whispering an incantation. Slowly, the sky above them began to swirl. It continued to swirl faster and faster with each passing second. A small black hole appeared in the middle of the vortex, growing larger as the swirling increased.

Goten couldn't help but laugh as he saw this incredible sight for the second time today. He wondered what all the other people in the city around them thought of this.

Finally, Dende lowered his hands to his side and looked at his four companions. "If it comes to it, you can simply kill Frieza in order to send him back to Hell. Passing back into the world of the dead will realign his dimensional position, so he will be thrown back here instantly. However, try to keep from doing that if you can. Kids so young should not be responsible for anyone's death, even the death of a galactic murderer like Frieza. Now get going. And please be careful." he said, giving his last instructions to them, hoping that they would follow them.

Trunks gave Dende a little salute to show that he and the others got it, then he turned to Starfire.

"Okay Starfire, lead the way." he said. Starfire smiled down at him and nodded. Then, turning to look up at the portal, she began to fly straight up towards it. The kids began to follow, slightly behind her and flying in a circle formation around her; Trunks behind and to her left, carrying the backpack with their supplies, Goten behind and to her right, his father's Power Pole across his back, Marron behind her and faced towards Starfire's back.

As the four of them neared the swirling vortex and the portal at its center, their hair began to wave with the wind that was being generated from the swirling energy . Starfire's eyes narrowed in anticipation of the battle to come, hoping that her friends were alright. Hoping that Robin was alright.

The three kids following her were all smiling in joy and exhilaration of flying into the portal, enjoying the wind that stirred their hair and clothing. Unable to hold in his excitement any longer, Trunks shouted out the only words that seemed appropriate to the situation.

"Next stop, Titans Tower!"

* * *

And that's the last chapter of the first arc of this story. There will be three more arcs. 

Next is the first interlude, which goes forward again to what was set up in the prologue, when Starfire is stuck in the Z World for the second time, and how she's coping with that while they look for a way to get back to the Titan world. And a secret that nobody was supposed to know will be revealed, causing one young Z-Warrior endless embarrassment, and placing a certain Titan in a really awkward situation.

A/N: I know that it's kinda dumb to have Dende only be able to open the portal once, but since this story would not work if it could be opened so easily, it was necessary to put that limitation on him.


	6. Interlude

**The Coolest Thing To Happen: **

**The Teen Titans/DragonBall Z Crossover**

**By **

**Teen Tyrant**

**----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Interlude**

**Starfire in Z World**

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Three days had passed since Starfire had become trapped in their world again. Those three days were the most exciting that Trunks had experienced in a long time, not counting that day that he and his friends had spent over in her dimension. He had been able to introduce Starfire to some of the wonders of this world, which was very different from the Earth she had become used to.

Since she had arrived near the end of the week, Trunks, Goten and Marron had only had to deal with one more day of school before being able to spend the rest of the time with Starfire. They had been able to really show her around the Capsule Corporation, explain the function of the capsules, show her some of the technologies that did not yet exist on the Earth of her dimension, and reveal a few other wonders that she had not been able to experience during her first brief visit, such as the dinosaurs that still roamed this world, which were extinct in her own.

After gathering and examining the remains of the three robots that Slade had created, Bulma had determined that the machines had not been designed to open the dimensional portal deliberately. It seemed that they just happened to have the right energy charge and type to open it, and had fired into the air around Starfire very near to where the portal had originally opened four months ago. Bulma had agreed to try and create a device that could open the portal again and send Starfire home. However, the type and magnitude of energy that was required to open it had altered again, as it seemed to do every time the portal was opened. Each time the vortex was formed, it became more difficult to recreate it again. Bulma had explained to Starfire that the time may come when there would be no way to open it again, unless a way could be found to perpetually change energy frequencies for portal formation.

Studying the Slade robots, taking notes from what Starfire had told her about how Cyborg had been able to open the portal to send the children home, Starfire's knowledge of the space-time continuum, and adding her own knowledge on top of it all, Bulma set about the creation of a portal opener that could serve their purposes. She had made it clear that creating the device itself could take some time, as well as the search for the right energy frequency to open the portal, but she was confident that she could succeed. Starfire showed endless gratitude for Bulma's assistance. In the meantime, Starfire had opted to spend as much time with her adorable young friends as possible.

------

It was now late afternoon, and Trunks was about to finish his daily training session with Vegeta. While his father lifted specifically designed weights that weighed roughly seventy tons each in this two-hundred and fifty times enhanced gravity, Trunks was practicing his punching techniques. He continually thrust his fists through the air, hitting invisible opponents. Sometimes his imaginary target was Majin Buu, sometimes it was Frieza, sometimes it was Slade; it all depended on his mood. For the three days that Starfire had been staying with them, he had felt really good, like having Starfire here, sharing this world with her in a situation that did not involve battling super-psychos, was giving him a feeling of accomplishment. As such, he was imagining he was fighting Frieza, as their ultimate victory over him had given that same feeling. If he was feeling like he couldn't help Starfire get home, he usually imagined Majin Buu, to reflect his failure at being able to beat him. If he was feeling angry because of Starfire's sadness at being cut off from her friends, he imagined he was fighting Slade, as he was the one responsible for her being here again. While he and the others were glad that she was here, it was tragic that it was against her will.

Looking over at the digital clock set into the control console in the center of the room, Trunks saw that it was only two minutes until his usual time was up. Guessing that his father was too busy with his own training to notice him stopping a little early, Trunks walked to the room's central core and turned the gravity off with the temporary pause button, which would allow him to exit the room and then reinstate the gravity once he left.

After pushing the button and picking up his towel that he set on the ground near the door, Trunks wiped his forehead and his neck with it, and then reached for the button to open the door.

"You've stopped early." Vegeta said, still lifting weights, not bothering to turn around and look at his son. Trunks stopped and turned around to look at him for a moment.

"It's only two minutes. It won't hurt my training too much, will it?" he said, trying to persuade Vegeta to allow him to leave early. Vegeta was silent for a moment, before answering.

"You are getting lazy. You spend too much time with your new friend." Vegeta said, in a dare-to-argue-with-me tone.

Trunks shrugged. "She's cool. We've been through a lot. Until she can go home, I want Starfire to be as happy as she can be. She's my friend." he said, in a similar tone to his father's, but less confrontational. When Vegeta did not answer after a moment, Trunks figured that was the end of the conversation. Reaching for the button again, Trunks pushed it and began to step out of the gravity room, when Vegeta said his final words on the subject.

"I don't know why you want to be friends with that strange-talking freak."

Trunks stopped and turned around to glare fiercely at his father's back. He frowned deeply at Vegeta's remark. His father was a mean, anti-social guy, he knew. The only people he respected were Bulma, Trunks, Goku and Gohan, and he hardly ever had a kind word even for them, at least whenever prying ears were around. It was no surprise that he would have an unkind word about Starfire, but Trunks was glad that she was not around to hear the rude comment.

Suppressing his momentary anger with his father, Trunks decided not to press the subject. He exited the room and the door slid closed behind him.

------

In the Capsule Corp. kitchen, Starfire was aiding Bulma with the preparation of the evening meal. Bulma was wearing her favorite short green dress, while Starfire was wearing an exact copy of her usual uniform that Bulma had made for her, so that she would not need to wear the same one day after day.

The two had gained a respect for one another in the three days since they had met. Starfire's innocent and naïve attitude reminded Bulma of Goku when she had first met him, and she could certainly see the similarities in her meeting with Goku and Trunks' meeting with her. But Starfire was like the female Saiyan that she had never met and wished she had, being really strong and being able to consume a lot of food. That, and she was not much better at cooking than Bulma herself, and she welcomed the strange food suggestions that Starfire gave her. Anything new to appease Trunks and Vegeta's monstrous appetites was welcome.

Starfire was holding a bowl of salad in one arm, while using a pair of tongs in her other hand to grab a handful of salad, raising it above the bowl and release it, only to repeat the process over again.

"Tell me, Bulma Ma'am, why is it that I must toss the salad?" Starfire asked, curious with her task.

Bulma smiled and laughed inwardly. "Starfire, again, you don't have to call me Ma'am. Just Bulma. And you toss the salad so that all the different ingredients of it get mixed in, so that nobody gets a big helping of a single vegetable in one bite." she explained. Starfire nodded, now seeing the wisdom in performing the tossing of vegetables.

Trunks entered the kitchen, still dressed in his green gi that he worked out in.

"Hey mom, hi Starfire." Trunks said to them, as he entered.

Starfire smiled at him. "Good afternoon, Trunks. How has your training been?" she asked, curious.

Trunks shrugged. "Eh, same stuff, different day." he said.

Starfire giggled that wonderful giggle of hers. "Your father has very strict training schedules. Much like… Robin." she said, her face drooping a little at the name. She had allowed her thoughts to go to him, reminding her once again that she had been separated from Robin and the other Titans for days now. She did not know what may have happened to them in that time, and they did not know what had become of her.

Trunks noticed her become saddened by the mention of Robin, and tried to cheer her up. "Well Star, if you're done here, you wanna go outside? You can try and find me again, while we wait for Goten. He should be here in a while. What do you say?"

Starfire looked at Bulma, seeing if she had anything else that she wished Starfire to help her with. Bulma nodded and waved a hand.

"I'm fine from here, Starfire. You go on. Trunks is going to be going to school tomorrow, so get as much playtime in as you can; he'll be gone most of the day."

Starfire set the salad bowl down on the kitchen counter and turned to Trunks.

"Very well. Let us play the 'hide and go seek' until Goten arrives. I will find you this time, _Grakooachi_." Starfire said, competitively.

Trunks grinned mischievously. "Not a chance, _Grempnen_." he said, racing Starfire to the living room and the front door.

Bulma watched them go, smiling at how unusual it was to see her boy having such a close bond with such a strange person. True, she had befriended Goku, and he had certainly been very strange. However, after hearing the children and Starfire tell the story of their first encounter all those months ago, she knew that the bond that had grown between all of them was a bit more intense than that.

Trunks especially had a close bond with Starfire, considering the bizarre events that had transpired during the alliance between the three children and the Teen Titans. Those words that Trunks and Starfire called one another were a testament to that. She had asked Trunks what they meant and why they called each other by those names. Trunks had told her that they were just words from Starfire's language that meant "unusual friend".

Bulma knew that "unusual friend" was an understatement, from what she had heard of the experiences that Starfire had been through with Trunks in particular. The battle with Frieza, the fusion, their journey through a place called Nevermore (which, according to Starfire and the kids, was actually _inside_ the mind of Starfire's friend Raven), and the memory exchange that had passed between the two as a result of those events. No wonder Trunks considered someone he had known for only one day as a friend; when you and that person had almost died together and had ended up having the memory of every moment of your lives inside each other's minds, it was just natural that a friendship would be formed.

Goten and Marron had a strong relationship with Starfire too. Starfire called Goten the "spiky-haired one" and she and Marron referred to each other as the sisters that neither had ever had. Although, now that Bulma thought about it, Marron had seemed a lot less happy when hanging around with Starfire yesterday.

------

Goku pulled the car into the Capsule Corp. garage and turned off the engine. He stepped out of the car, as Chichi stepped out of the passenger door. Inside the back seats, Gohan and Videl exited the car. Goten, who had been sitting between the two, got out of the car on Videl's side.

"Mom, I think I saw Trunks around the side of the building. Can I go find him?" Goten asked, not wanting to bother with the obligatory greetings and just get to hanging out with Trunks and Starfire.

Chichi thought about it, and then said, "Very well. But don't get yourself too dirty. Bulma invited us to dinner and as a guest, it would be rude to dirty her house." Chichi said sternly, although she knew that she couldn't keep Goten from being Goten with all the stern lectures in the world.

Goten grinned and ran out of the garage, around to the side of the building where he though he had seen Trunks.

"Thanks mom!" he called out as he ran.

------

At one side of Capsule Corp.'s circular perimeter, Trunks was now hovering in the air, scanning the area for Starfire. He had been hiding from Starfire for a while, but when a long time had gone by and she had not even approached his hiding place, he'd figured she'd either wandered far away from his position, or had given up in trying to find him and had immediately gone into hiding herself. Trunks had come out of hiding to see what the deal was, but so far he hadn't found so much as a single red hair, and since he had agreed to not use his ability to sense her power level during this game, it was really proving difficult.

Suddenly, Trunks felt strong arms encircle him, trapping his own arms at his sides. Gasping in surprise, Trunks heard Starfire's playful laugh in his ear.

"I have caught you, Trunks!" Starfire giggled triumphantly. Trunks struggled to break free, but without increasing his power, he was not at the right level of strength to break through her boundless confidence.

"Hey! Starfire, that's cheating! You are supposed to actually _find_ me!" Trunks shouted, not really mad at her, but feeling tricked all the same.

"You did not say that I could not wait for you to come out of your hiding place in order to find out where it was. Now, I have caught you away from cover. I told you I would win, did I not?" she said, cheerfully.

Trunks laughed and kicked his legs in the air, still unable to break free from her arms wrapped around his torso, but unwilling to spoil the game by powering up.

"Come on Star, let me go!" Trunks yelled in obvious fake anger, as he continued to laugh at his own folly, and Starfire's genius tactic.

Starfire then felt a tapping on her shoulder. She turned her head to see Goten now floating next to her and Trunks. He tapped her shoulder again, the leaned in and whispered in her ear.

"Hey Starfire," he began, then pulled back and raised his voice to a shout. "You're it!" He then turned in the air and flew away laughing. Surprised and unsure, Starfire let go of Trunks, who turned around and, continuing to laugh, backed up Goten's claim.

"Yeah, you're it, Starfire. You got to catch me or Goten now!" Trunks then flew off after Goten. Starfire remained where she was for a moment, before her emerald green eyes began to sparkle again at the prospect of a new game. Laughing as well, Starfire gave chase, persuing the two young boys through the air, then eventually along the ground when they realized that they were not supposed to be flying.

------

Hearing a knock at the front door, Bulma ceased her conversation with Chichi and moved to answer it. Opening the door, she saw Krillin and Number Eighteen standing outside the door, with little Marron in front of them, Krillin's hands on her shoulders. She had invited them for dinner as well.

"Hey there everyone." Bulma said to the family of three.

"Hi Bulma. Thanks for inviting us over." Krillin answered his old friend.

Marron smiled up to Bulma. "Bulma, are Trunks and Goten nearby?" she asked. Nodding, Bulma pointed her thumb over her shoulder towards the back of the house.

"They're both outside playing with Starfire." she answered. At that, Marron's bright smile seemed to shrink, now looking more like it was just there for manner's sake.

"Of course. I forgot, Starfire is always playing with them since she's been stuck here." the girl said. Her parents and Bulma looked at her, then at each other, raising their eyebrows. Marron's comment was… unusual. It was true, yet Marron seemed to be saying it in a way to indicate that it was not favorable.

------

Finally catching up to the two boys, Starfire lunged forward and tackled them from behind, knocking them both to the grassy ground where the three aliens rolled for a moment in a tangle of arms and legs. When they came to a stop, the three sat up, all laughing hysterically at the joy of the game and the bizarre finish to it that had just occurred.

"Having fun?" said a familiar, yet unfamiliar voice. The three turned to see Marron standing a short distance from them, her hands on her hips, staring at all of them as if she was trying to look like she was glad to see them. However, like her voice, her facial expression seemed to hold a hidden message of disapproval.

Not liking this very much, as he had noticed it in the last few days too, Goten tried to make it seem like everything was great.

"Yeah, it's real fun playing keep away from Starfire. Wanna join, Marron?" he asked, smiling too widely, hoping that his friend would let go of whatever was bothering her and have fun with them.

Marron smiled again, but a bit icier than before. "That's okay. I don't want to mess up the game that you already have going. As long as _Starfire_ is staying happy while she's here, then that's fine for me. We'll play something else, after dinner." With that, Marron turned around and headed back to the house.

Starfire tilted her head, wondering what that was all about. Her non-blood little sister seemed to be troubled by something, and her words made it seem like _she_ was the cause of it. Starfire wondered what she had done wrong. Trunks wondered what Marron's deal was too, but didn't give it much thought. She was probably just feeling left out since Starfire was staying here, meaning that she didn't get to spend much time with Starfire when she wanted to.

------

After dinner later in the evening, the whole group of friends and family gathered in Bulma's living room. Trunks and Goten were both telling the story of how the whole thing with Starfire had taken place four months ago.

Everyone was listening intently, with the exception of Vegeta, who really didn't care one way or another and was only still remaining there because Bulma had demanded that he try to appear courteous and listen. Although they had heard a basic summary of what had happened before, the boys were now going into much more detail. Starfire sat with her elbows on her knees and her face in her hands, listening to the retelling of that fateful day.

When Trunks began to describe the exact moment that he had met Starfire, rescuing her from the mutated dragonfly, Marron had interrupted with a not-so-quiet remark.

"Wasn't that a great moment, rescuing the damsel." she said, a slightly bitter edge to her voice, looking at Starfire while she said it. Everyone looked at her, and Marron blushed lightly, realizing that she had said that louder than she had meant to, but not taking it back. The adults were confused by what she was getting at.

Videl leaned over and whispered in Gohan's ear, "Marron's trying to aggravate Starfire." Frowning, Gohan nodded and whispered back.

"Goten said that they hadn't been getting along quite as well the last couple of days. He hoped it would clear up." he said, wondering what was going on.

Not sure what to think about the remark, Trunks stared at Marron questioningly for a moment.

"Uh, yeah, I guess." he said, giving her a "what are you doing" look. Marron simply crossed her arms and leaned back in her seat on the couch.

Trunks continued to tell the story, with Goten filling in a few bits that Trunks might have dismissed as unimportant and did not include. Goten didn't want any part of the story to go untold. Well, except for a few parts, but that was much later on in the story.

"Then, while we were waiting for Dende, Starfire told us about herself and the Titans, and we told her about us." Trunks informed the adults.

Starfire nodded. "And ever since we shared our life stories with one another, we have all been close." she said, smiling.

Marron huffed. "Don't see how we couldn't be. Your sob story really went to Trunks' head. No wonder he spent every moment that we were in that other world trying to make everything happy for you." she said, not disguising her bitterness at all now.

Everyone turned their heads sharply to look at her. Trunks and Goten's eyes had widened, and before Trunks could say anything about Marron's comment, Starfire stood up and confronted the girl.

"What is wrong with you, Marron. I thought you were my friend." she said, hurt. Marron looked up at her, her face gaining an angered expression. She got up and stood in front of Starfire. Around the two, everyone else also stood up, not understanding the escalating hostility between the two girls.

"I thought we were friends too! But you just have to keep on being so precious and helpless, making everyone around you do everything for you! We bent over backwards to help you out last time, and now you are doing it again, getting Bulma to make you a portal opener, and having Trunks and Goten baby-sit you all the time!" she shouted at the older girl.

Starfire glared back at the noseless girl. "I am not trying to get anyone to do anything for me. I simply wish to return to my own world, so that I may rejoin the Titans. That is my only wish." she said, trying to make her young friend understand. Marron crossed her arms again and turned around, showing Starfire her back.

"Well then I wish you'd hurry up and do it. Everything was fine before you came back." she responded, really trying to lay on the hurt.

Trunks stepped around Starfire and approached Marron, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Starfire didn't ask to come here, Marron. She got sent here. I want her to go home." he said, wanting to end this whole argument here and now.

In sudden, unexpected anger, Marron turned on him. She spun around, knocking his hand away from her shoulder and bunched her hands into fists, glaring at him accusingly.

"No you don't, you want her to stay! Just admit it Trunks; you don't want her to ever go back… 'cause you're still in love with her!"

Trunks recoiled like he'd been struck, his face contorting with an expression of horror as he took a step back from Marron.

"Marron, stop it! That's enough!" Krillin shouted at his daughter, unable to take this anymore. He'd let it go as long as it had in the hope of finding out what had his daughter so upset, but now he wished he had stopped her sooner, as Marron had taken it too far.

Marron looked back at her father for a second, his interruption penetrating through her anger and bringing most of her mind back to the moment. Turning her head to look back at Trunks, Marron realized what her father knew; she had stepped over the line. Way beyond the line.

Trunks stood there looking at the ground, visibly shaking. His fists were clenched tightly, as were his teeth, and his eyes were twitching. Marron couldn't tell if he was going faint, cry… or punch her in the face. He looked like he wanted to do all three.

All around them, the adults' reactions to Marron's words were finally setting in. Bulma put a hand near her mouth and gasped. The eyes of all the parents went wide and their mouths fell open in shock. Nobody said anything; the room was dead silent for several moments.

Oddly enough, it was Vegeta who broke the silence. Vegeta was the only one who did not react to what Marron said; he simply looked from Marron to Trunks, to Starfire, back to Trunks, back to Marron, then back to Trunks again, and then said a single sentence. He was not trying to say it out loud; it was more to himself really. But in the complete silence of the room, everyone heard him clearly.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." he whispered, disbelieving.

Trunks slowly raised his head to glare at Marron, his eyes beginning to take on a glassy look as tears of shame threatened to flow over at any moment. His face began to turn red with anger and embarrassment. He turned away from her and took a single step towards the stairs.

Marron put out her hand, as if to put it on his shoulder.

"Trunks, I-", but before she could say anything more, Trunks bolted for the stairs, running away from Marron, from Starfire and from the gawking, disbelieving eyes staring at him from seemingly everywhere.

As he ran up the stairs to his room, Bulma began to run after him.

"Trunks! Trunks wait!" she yelled as she followed her son up the stairs, leaving everyone else behind to think what they would of the situation.

Goten slapped a hand to his forehead. "Here we go again." he moaned, suddenly afflicted with a case of déjà vu.

Starfire continued to stare in the direction that Trunks had run, before turning back to Marron with a look in her eyes that was not anger, but a much worse expression: disappointment.

"That was cruel of you, Marron." Starfire said firmly.

Marron looked from Starfire back to the stairs Trunks had run up.

"I-I didn't mean to say it like… it wasn't suppose to…" but she was at a loss for words, just as she had been at a loss for control a minute ago, and the result was to hurt her very best friend, and to possibly make an enemy of another.

"Marron, come on. We're leaving." Krillin said, looking to his wife for any objection. But Number Eighteen had none. The cybernetic blonde thought that leaving was exactly what they should do, considering Marron's less-than-polite behavior.

Marron lowered her head in guilt. "Yes, daddy." she said, in no mood to defend what she had done, as she knew there was no defense. Looking one last time at Trunks' path of retreat, she said softly, "Trunks, I'm sorry."

Turning away, she began to follow her parents to the front door. Stopping for a moment, she turned and looked back up at Starfire. While her expression remained neutral for a second, it soon changed to an expression of anger and resentment towards the Tamaranian princess. Marron then turned and exited the house with her parents, prepared to take whatever punishment they meant to give her. Her feeling of guilt at the look on Trunks' face would be a much worse punishment than whatever they had in mind.

As the door closed and Krillin's family left, Goku decided to be the one to break the silence among the rest of them.

"Well, that sure was… unexpected." he said, trying to smile and lighten the tense mood.

Videl nodded in agreement with her future father-in-law. "It sure was. Who would have guessed." she said in bewilderment.

Vegeta uncrossed his arms from their usual position and stepped in front of Starfire.

"You mean to tell me that Trunks has developed _feelings_ for you?" he demanded.

Starfire lowered her head, feeling sorry for what Trunks would be facing, now that his deepest secret had been exposed. She nodded to Vegeta's question.

"Yes, it is true. I had thought that perhaps our time apart had allowed him to get over those feelings, but-" she paused, looking at the stairs that led up to where Trunks' room was located. "Clearly I was wrong." she said, sadly.

------

"Trunks, open up." Bulma pleaded softly, knocking again. She had not even tried the knob. She didn't know if Trunks had locked himself in or not, but it didn't matter. She wanted Trunks to let her into his room on his own. She'd stand outside his door and knock all night if she had to, but they had to talk face to face. She tried again, knocking on his door.

"Trunks, please open the door. I don't want you hiding from me." she said, trying to sound as much like the comforting voice that he needed to hear as she could. A clicking sound told her that Trunks had unlocked his door. The knob turned and he opened it, looking up at her. She was surprised to see that he had not been crying, and that he seemed to have composed himself rather quickly from the incident downstairs.

"It's not you I'm hiding from." he said simply, letting go of the door knob and walking back into his room, leaving the door open. Taking that as a sign that he was allowing her in, Bulma stepped into his room and closed the door behind her.

"Starfire, or Marron?" she asked, wanting to know which one he was trying to hide from, and which one he wanted to talk about first.

Trunks turned back around and stared off into a corner of the room, not looking right at her. His arms were crossed angrily and a deep frown had settled on his young face.

"Marron, to keep from yelling my head off at her for betraying me like that. Starfire, because…" he looked up at her, his face softening a little. "Well, you know why, don't you." he said, somewhat bitterly. Walking over to his bed, Trunks sat down on it and place his hands on his knees, lowering his head and closing his eyes.

"Now _everyone_ knows why. I've never been so embarrassed." he finished.

Bulma shook her head. "Trunks, I know you kids had this whole thing with Starfire a secret, but this one surprised me more than the first one did." she told him.

Trunks turned his head away from her. "It's so stupid. I know that she's a teenage girl from another dimension and I only knew her for one day, but… I really have gotten to care about her as more than just a friend." he admitted.

"But, Marron said 'love'. Surely that's an exaggeration. Are you sure this isn't just a case of a school-boy crush?" Bulma asked.

Trunks looked up at her. "Believe me mom; I've had four months to think about this whole thing. Trust me, it's not a crush. It's serious." he said.

Bulma raised an eyebrow. "So, Marron was right? You are… _in love_ with Starfire?" she questioned, still not quite believing it.

Trunks looked up at her for a moment, opening his mouth to say something, but he paused. After a few seconds, he closed his eyes and lowered his head again, nodding.

"Head-over-heels. Knee deep and sinking fast." he confessed, feeling embarrassed to be finally getting the truth of the matter out.

Bulma's eyebrows went up and she gasped in amused surprise. She gave him a smile.

"Well, that doesn't exactly make for the easiest situation in the world, does it?" she asked.

Trunks crossed his arms bitterly. "More like an impossible situation. What was I thinking? Starfire doesn't belong here and I'm just a kid to her. But having her around for the last few days has let me conveniently forget that little fact."

Bulma moved closer to the bed and sat down next to him on his left side.

"Trunks, you're a young boy who's only a few years away from adolescence. I would expect you to form a crush at some point. Or, even young love." she said, still amused and not quite able to accept it yet. "But, Starfire's a little too out of sorts for you, isn't she?"

Trunks signed. "You mean a little too old for me? A little too taken with another guy? A little too _out of my dimension-ish_? Yeah, she's a little too out of sorts for me." he said, seeming to verbally smack himself with the words.

Bulma ran a hand through his purple hair. "Well, you certainly had me fooled. I'm your mother; I should know you better than anyone. But I couldn't tell that you had any such feelings for Starfire. I didn't have any clue at all. You were really good at hiding it." she admitted.

Trunks shrugged. "I didn't want anyone teasing me about it. I'm not really proud of the whole thing. It's not like it would have done any good anyway. Like I said, Starfire's too old for me. It's not like I had any real chance." he crossed his arms and closed his eyes again.

"I guess in the end, Robin really is the best guy for her. She already likes him. Even if it wasn't a problem that she's four years older than me, she wants him. And he can't even bring himself to respond to that." he sneered.

Deciding to pry a little further, Bulma asked him, "Trunks, what is it that you love about her?"

Trunks looked up at her, shocked that she would ask. "Jeez, mom. I don't know."

Bulma frowned. "Come on, Trunks. You've never had a problem saying exactly what you thought about anyone or anything, and now one of the most special things that can happen to someone has happened to you, and you can't even tell me why?" she asked, frustrated at his lack of cooperation.

Trunks shrugged. "I don't know what to say."

Bulma sighed in exasperation. "Tell me why you care about her! When did it happen?"

Trunks also sighed, in defeat. "I don't know. I've thought about that myself and I can't be sure. I might have already liked her a little after I saved her from the bug and made sure she was okay when it knocked her out. I knew she was different, that she was special somehow, but I didn't really think about it at the time."

He paused, and Bulma nudged him to go on.

"Then, there was when we fought beside each other, the fusion, the memory exchange, everything that happened. I think that by the time we got out of Nevermore, I just… knew." he said.

Bulma smiled. "And? What was it about her that was so special to you?"

Trunks thought about it for a moment. "Everything about her. She's beautiful." he looked up at her, trying to get his point across as strongly as he could. "She's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. And that's only the beginning. She so nice, she likes having fun and playing around. She's really strong and a great fighter. And she's smarter than you would think. She knows things. Special things. It's just, everything about her is so… perfect."

He looked up at his mother and a slight smile appeared on his face. "That's the word I'm looking for. Perfect. She's just perfect." he said, certain beyond any doubt about it.

Bulma chuckled, shaking her head, her short blue hair waving lightly.

"Oh yes, you're definitely in love. There's no question about that. I can see it on your face and hear it in your voice, now that you're not hiding it. You've got it bad."

Trunks turned away from her again, blushing. "Yeah. Too bad that there's nothing I can do about it. Starfire thinks of me like a little brother or something." He sighed. "That's why she's the _Grempnen_, and I'm the _Grakooachi_." he said in a regretful voice.

Bulma thought for a moment. "Trunks, what do those words mean? What do they _really_ mean?"

Feeling like he might as well admit everything now that he had come this far, Trunks decided to tell her.

"They're Tamaranian words. I picked them out of Starfire's memories. _Grakooachi_ means 'the unfortunate one who desires that which he cannot have'. And _Grempnen_ means 'the desired one'."

Bulma raised an eyebrow. "Starfire knows the way you feel about her?" she asked, surprised.

Trunks shrugged again. "I don't know. She might. I know that she thinks I have a crush on her, but I don't know if she can tell that it's more than that." he looked up at his mother, who was looking at him, questioningly. He grinned sheepishly. "I kind of let it slip when I was over in her universe. It was right after we finally got Robin back from Slade's layer. I got jealous and lost it, pretty much like how Marron did back there."

Now realizing something, Trunks groaned. "I guess now I'm going to get a lecture from dad." he complained.

Bulma frowned. "What lecture?"

"Oh, you know. How such a weakness can lead a warrior to death when in battle or some stupid stuff like that." he responded.

Bulma laughed without humor. "Let me tell you something, Trunks. When I was pregnant with you, it was the proof that your father had succumbed to his feelings, instead of his warrior's instincts. If he really believed all of that bluster, he'd have had no choice but to kill me before you were born, so that nobody would ever know that he was capable of feeling. But he couldn't do it, because he really did love me, even though he denied it as much as he could. If he gives you a hard time about Starfire, he'll be hypocrite of the worst kind, because you are the evidence of his own feelings, and he'd be telling you not to follow yours. Trust me, you're not going to have any problems with Vegeta." she finished.

Trunks relaxed at that. "Well good. That's one headache I can avoid at least." Then there was a knock at the door, and he and Bulma both looked up. "Come in." he said.

The door opened slightly and Starfire stuck her head in. "I am not interrupting?" she asked, hesitantly.

Trunks shook his head. "No Starfire, it's alright. You can come in."

Starfire opened the door all the way and stepped further into the room, clasping her hands in front of her.

"Marron has been taken home by her parents. I thought that you should know, before she left, she uttered an apology for her behavior, and for what she said. I felt that I should tell you, since Marron is not here to tell you herself." Starfire informed them.

Trunks let out a long breath, then smiled a little. "Okay. I'll accept Marron's apology from you Star, until she can give it to me herself at school tomorrow."

Starfire nodded and continued to stand there awkwardly, not sure what else to say. Trunks stared back at her for a moment, before turning to look up at Bulma.

"Mom." he said to her.

Bulma nodded, knowing what he meant. She stood up from the bed.

"I'll be in the living room, if you want to talk some more later." she said. As she walked passed Starfire to the door, she stopped for a moment and put a hand on the girl's shoulder. They looked each other in the eyes for a moment, a look of friendly understanding passing between them. Then, Bulma removed her hand and left the room, closing the door behind her.

Trunks and Starfire remained where they were, not moving, only looking at one another for a few moments. Then Trunks broke eye contact and looked down at the floor.

"Seems like we've been here before, huh Star?" he asked, a little amused.

Starfire nodded. "Yes. I believe the correct Earth phrase is _déjà vu?_" she asked. Trunks nodded that she got the correct phrase. There was more silence for a moment. Then, Starfire moved closer and sat down next to him in the same spot Bulma had.

"Trunks, I am… touched that you still have these feelings for me. Though, they seem to be somewhat stronger than I recall." she said, sounding almost like she meant it as a question. Trunks closed his eyes, sighed and shook his head.

"No, they're the same as they always were." he told her. Seeing Starfire look at him questioningly, he continued. "I tried to hide it as best I could. It was embarrassing enough just letting you think that I only had a crush on you. I wasn't ready for you know how much you… really meant to me." he said, blushing and looking away.

Starfire looked a little sad at that. "I understand. I am sorry that I cannot return your feelings, Trunks. Even if I could, it would not be appropriate."

Trunks nodded again. "Yeah, I know. I hope that you weren't too embarrassed about everyone finding out. Marron might as well have shouted it to the rest of the world while she was at it." he said angrily.

Starfire shook her head. "I was not embarrassed. I was worried about how your family would react. I am not ashamed that you admire me so." she said softly.

Then she asked him, "Trunks, why do you think Marron is angry with me?"

Trunks thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. "I don't know. It doesn't make any sense." Thinking for a moment longer, he uttered a bitter chuckle. "Maybe Marron has a crush on me and she's jealous of all the attention I've been giving you. Oh, wouldn't that be the mother of all ironies." he said, obviously joking.

Starfire's eyes looked down as she thought about it.

Trunks looked up at her. "Starfire? Um, this isn't going to ruin anything, is it? We're still going to be friends, right?" he asked, a worried look in his blue eyes.

Starfire smiled down at him, and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, drawing him to her in a hug while she giggled.

"Of course we will. We shall always be friends, Trunks. We have been through too much for that to change. And it is nothing new for one of my friends to think… amorously about me." she said cheerfully.

Unable to resist, as she was pressing him against her side with the hug, Trunks wrapped his arms around her midsection and leaned into her, hugging her back strongly. He laughed a little himself at his relief that Marron's outburst had not spoiled anything. As they held on to one another for a few more moments, Trunks began to chuckle louder, until Starfire looked down at him in curiosity.

"Please, what is it that you find so humorous?" she asked, drawing a blank at what could possibly be making him laugh.

Taking in a breath, Trunks hugged her a little tighter, resting his head against her side.

"It's just funny. All my life, I've never tried to be anyone else. Everyone was always jealous of me. Everybody thought I was the coolest person around, and they all tried to be like me. I've never once wanted to be anybody else except myself." he said, looking up at her.

"But right now, I _really_ wish I was Robin." he finished.

Starfire blushed a little, since it had only rarely been pointed out that she and Robin had a special connection that went beyond friendship. Realizing what he meant by wishing that he was Robin, Starfire could not help but laugh a little herself. They hugged each other once again, both of them now chuckling at the irony.

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Okay, we've finally reached the end of the part of the story that is more DragonBall Z based. We will now start moving into a more Teen Titans based story, and all but the interludes will take place in the Titan world from this point until the end of the story.

This first interlude was a scene that I have had in my head since mid-January, and I have gone over it in my head hundreds of times since then, perfecting every little detail until I could finally write it down. Looking back on it now, I think I've done a fine job of capturing the vision that I was trying to achieve.

This story will be on a temporary hiatus so that I can get some other fanfics done, but with the next chapter, the Teen Titans and the young Z-Warriors will finally meet face to face, and the name of this whole story will make sense at last. Starfire and the Z-kids will aid the Titans in the fight against the super Slade bots and Frieza, and the action part of this story will commence. I hope all those who have read up to this point will stick around, because it will finally start getting serious from here on out. See you with the next update, whenever that may be!


	7. Chapter 4

**The Coolest Thing To Happen: **

**The Teen Titans/DragonBall Z Crossover**

**By **

**Teen Tyrant**

For those who have followed this story so far, I have made an alteration to the timeline. As far as Teen Titans is concerned, this story will definitely take place after season 5, but will ignore the events of Trouble In Tokyo. The reason why is because Robin and Starfire are not together yet in this story, and I have a special ending in store for them.

* * *

**Chapter 4**

-

**Four Months Earlier**

-

**Titan World**

-

In the sky over Jump City, the portal began to open. First, the fabric of the sky itself began to swirl like a whirlpool. A glowing blue light began to emanate from the center of the cyclone. As the swirling reached its critical speed, a dark hole opened in the center, surrounded on the edges by that blue light.

Many of the people in the city were awed by this spectacle, which had opened again a few hours after the last time. While many looked to the sky to witness this sight, only a few of them were able to see four small dots that appeared at the center of the vortex. Even so, none of them knew what they were, and were more interested in the swirling vortex itself to think much of it.

Exiting the portal completely, Starfire, in the company of Trunks, Goten and Marron, looked around at the city stretched out below her.

"It is wonderful to be home again! It has been but a few short hours, but even that is too much time away from this glorious place." Starfire happily declared. The young children at her side began looking around at this world they had arrived in.

"Wow. A whole new dimension." Trunks said in awe, as though trying to fit the idea into his head.

"Yeah," Goten said in excitement. "We're like pioneers or something!" He laughed and stared down at Jump City below him.

Marron frowned and turned to her friend. "Goten, how do you even know what a pioneer is?" she asked him.

Goten shrugged. "Lucky guess?"

Laughing a little himself, Trunks turned to their new friend.

"Where to now, Starfire?" he asked the Tamaranian princess. Starfire turned to look at him, then faced the ocean side of the city.

"We must meet up with my friends, the Titans. They have most likely returned to the tower, if they have not already engaged this Frieza in battle. We shall go to the tower first." she said, and began flying toward the bay. The three kids followed after her.

As they headed towards the bay, the children looked around at the city that passed below them, noting the differences from their own world. The buildings were almost all rectangular, and mostly gray. Some of them seemed to be made purely out of windows. There were no dome structures, as was the constant in their own world. All the people were moving around in cars that drove solely on wheels. There were no aircars to be seen. And no animal people. Everyone was pure human.

Trunks turned onto his back, flying while looking at the sky. He noted by the position of the sun, that it seemed to be a bit earlier than it was in their dimension when they had left. Perhaps this part of Starfire's world was in a different time zone than where they lived in their own world. That meant that this day would seem longer than it was, as it was at least two hours earlier here than it was back at home.

Nearing the water, the kids could see a large bridge connecting the two sides of the bay. What also stood out, was a building on a small piece of rock in the middle of the bay. It was a large gray building that was shaped like a T. This had to be the Titans Tower that Starfire had spoken of.

Starfire's smile widened as she approached her home. Although only a few hours since she had last been in it, being in another universe, separate from her home and friends, made it seem much longer. Starfire descended and landed on the rock island in front of the main doors. She figured that she might as well go in this way, and amaze her young friends.

The three children landed behind Starfire, their eyes and mouths open wide as they looked up at the tower before them.

"Now this is one cool looking building!" Trunks said excitedly. Starfire giggled and approached the doors, which slid open to allow her in. The kids followed her into the tower's entrance room, looking all around them with each step they took.

"I like this place." Marron said.

Starfire turned to them. "This is merely the first floor. It is much more amazing at the top floor." she informed them. Starfire approached the elevator and stepped in, motioning for the kids to follow her. Once they were all inside, Starfire pushed the button for the top floor.

Once they arrived and the elevator doors opened, Starfire led them towards the common room, where her friends would most likely be if they were here. She could hardly wait to see them and let them know that she was back and unharmed. She also looked forward to introducing them to her new young friends.

As the door to the common room slid open, Starfire stepped through, her eyes closed and her arms held wide.

"Friends, I have returned!" she shouted happily. She opened her eyes, and her face fell. The room was empty. No sign of Robin, no sign of Raven, no bickering between Cyborg and Beast Boy. Not even Silkie was in sight. Lowering her arms, Starfire stepped further into the room.

"Friends? Where have you gone? It is I, Starfire." she said out loud, hoping that they were all just hiding behind the furniture or something; though she knew better, she wanted to try just on the chance that they could be.

Trunks, Goten and Marron entered the room behind her and looked around in awe once again. The room was very neat. A kitchen area, a long couch set in front of a humongous TV, and a huge wall of windows that showed the bay and city beyond the tower.

Walking down the few steps to the floor of the room, Trunks took off his backpack and set it down on top of the table near the kitchen. Goten also took off his PowerPole and set it down next to Trunks' backpack. Marron immediately ran over to the wall of windows and looked out at the magnificent view, an excited smile on her young face.

Goten, typical for his blood, moved to the kitchen and began scanning the cupboards and refrigerator for things to eat later… not too much later either.

Turning around slowly, taking in the whole room, Trunks voiced his admiration.

"This place is awesome. You Titans sure know how to live." he said to Starfire, who was standing with a troubled look on her face. Looking at the giant TV screen, Trunks moved closer and examined it.

"Man, even I don't have a TV this big, and I'm the richest boy in the world! Well, my world anyway." he said in amazment. He watched as Starfire moved up to the TV as well, and stood in front of the control console that was set into the front of it. Pushing a button, she brought up a camera grid that seemed to cover the whole tower.

"They are not here. Where could they have gone?" she said sadly. She was worried that perhaps they'd had an encounter with this Frieza. If he was as much of a monster as the children had described, she feared for her friends' safety.

Seeing her worried, and for reasons unknown to him, not really liking to see her like that, Trunks decided to help. Closing his eyes, he focused his senses, to try and detect any powers nearby. He sensed nothing in the building, but in the city, he could feel a power greater than any other in range of his senses. There were also many smaller powers nearby, and if he was not mistaken, it seemed that three of them were in combat with the others.

"Do you guys feel that?" he asked out loud to his two companions. Marron and Goten stopped what they were doing, looked back at Trunks, then closed their eyes and focused their own senses. After a moment, they slowly opened their eyes and looked gravely at Trunks, nodding slowly.

Starfire looked back and forth between the children. "What is it that you feel?" she asked. Trunks turned to look up at her, not wanting to worry her, but knowing that she wanted to know the truth.

"We can sense a battle taking place in the city. One of the energy levels we're sensing is really strong. Not as strong as me and Goten, but it's still a big one. It's got to be him. Frieza" he answered her.

Starfire gasped, then turned back to the console. She brought up a display of the homing signal that all the Titans had in their communicators. On the screen, three signals were being displayed in the business section of town, toward the east. It showed the signals of Raven, Cyborg and Beast Boy. There was no signal from Robin's communicator.

Gasping again, Starfire turned and headed for the hallway again, determined to get to the roof and fly to her friends as fast as possible.

"I must aid them. And find out why there is no sign of Robin." she declared, marching toward the door.

Trunks, Goten and Marron began following, serious looks replacing the innocent amazement they had shown moments ago.

"We'll come too, Starfire." Trunks said. Goten and Marron nodded.

"Yeah, if it's Frieza, you're gonna need our help." Goten said.

Starfire turned to look back at them, and smiled.

"Thank you, my young friends. I welcome your assistance." she said. With that, the four young heroes headed for the stairway that led to the roof. Opening the door at the top of the stairwell, Starfire stepped out onto the roof, followed by the three Z-children.

Leaping into the air, Starfire took off at the fastest flight speed that she could attain when still inside a planet's atmosphere. The kids also took flight and gathered around her. All four were ready for the battle to come.

------

Cyborg threw another punch at the Slade minion robot in front of him. His fist smashed into its face and the thing's metal head snapped back. Normally, the robot's face would probably have caved in, but only a slight dent appeared on it. Whatever energy it was that was putting off that pinkish glow had made the minion slightly stronger than usual.

As he pulled back his fist for another punch, three more of the robots jumped on him, two of them grabbing his arms and one on his back with its arms around his shoulders. As they held him in place, Cyborg struggled to free himself. Before he could, the robot in front of him took a few steps back, then jumped forward with its foot out in front of itself. It kicked Cyborg in the chest and the other robots immediately let go as the force picked him up and sent him bouncing along the street.

Standing up and brushing himself off, Cyborg looked up to see the mechanized minions all charging toward him again. Readying himself for another round, Cyborg howled in fury and began his own charge.

Beast Boy's elephant form trumpeted loudly as he swung his tusks back and forth, trying to bash the other four robots who were attacking him. However, the mechanical ninjas kept diving and flipping out of the way before he could hit them.

All at once, the four mechs all lunged forward and each grabbed one of the changeling's enormous legs. Beast Boy's eye's widened as the four robots, each one enhanced with the energy that Frieza had passed into their bodies, pulled the pachyderm's legs out from under him. Beast Boy toppled over with a loud boom, his huge weight cracking the asphalt under him. The four robots immediately leaped upon his downed form, punching and kicking at his leathery hide.

Quickly, Beast Boy transformed into an enormous gorilla, knocking the robots back with a thrust from his huge arms. However, the robots were not thrown back as far as he had expected, based on his previous battles with them. Slade had made them a bit tougher this time around, thanks to Frieza's power. This was turning out to be one bad-looking day indeed.

Raven held the shield she had cast in front of herself as long as she could, but she was weakening quickly. The worst thing was, Frieza was just toying with her. She knew that. He and she were both hovering in the air, about twenty feet from the ground, and Frieza was shooting blast after blast of pink energy from his index fingers at her. Raven's shield of black energy was holding, but only barely, and Frieza was hardly even trying. If he really wanted to, he could have shattered her shield again like he had earlier and finished her off in a second. He was enjoying this game.

Raven gritted her teeth. This was not good. In fact, though they hadn't been fighting long, this seemed to be the worst things had gotten since Trigon had been released. Starfire was gone to who-knows-where, Robin had been captured by Slade's minions and was being held prisoner, this new alien freak in front of her had shown up and seemed to be stronger than all of them, and Slade had formed an alliance with this monster, so he'd have back up even if she did manage to defeat him. To top it all off, Raven had not had any breakfast this morning, not even a glass of herbal tea. She and the others were in a weakened state, especially after the fight with Killer Moth earlier that morning. If she'd had a little energy boost, she might have been able to bring more power to bear for a more devastating spell.

"Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos!" she shouted, firing a wave of her dark energy from her shield. The bolt of black lightning lashed out at Frieza, striking his white and purple hide. A sharp crackle filled the air and Frieza moved back a little, an annoyed look on his inhuman face. He looked like someone who had touched something and gotten a shock of static electricity and didn't like it at all. Raven smirked a little. So she had at least caused the creep some discomfort. Okay, that was a start; it was more than any of them had done to him earlier.

Frieza chuckled. "Hmm. I see we have a little spark after all." he said in his raspy, gender-less voice. "Well, let's see what kind of zap you really have, my precious." he finished.

Raven winced at that word. Precious? If this evil freak was trying to get on her nerves, he was doing a better job than Beast Boy ever did. Raven's eyes widened in shock as Frieza seemed to flash before her eyes and in the next instant, he was right in front of her. Again. Sweeping his left hand in front of him in a cutting manner, he sliced through Raven's shield and lashed out with his other hand, punching her relatively lightly in her face.

Raven was hurled away from Frieza and towards the ground. She smacked into Cyborg just before she hit the concrete, knocking her cybernetic teammate down as well. Rolling a little away from Cyborg as her body settled on the ground, Raven raise herself up on her right hand, massaging her face with her left. She turned her head to look at Cyborg.

"I can't stop him. He's too strong." she said, the worry in her voice unguarded.

Cyborg nodded. "Yeah, and these robots are giving us a tougher time than usual. Slade's modified them to hold some of Frieza's strength. I don't think the three of us are going to last much longer."

Beast Boy came bouncing along the ground, landing next to the two of them. He sat up, seeing hamsters running in their plastic play-wheels circling around his head. He was dizzy from the four robots having swung him around in a circle several times before throwing him. As his vision cleared, he looked ahead at the eight robots that now stood shoulder to shoulder in the middle of the street, their yellow-slit eyes bearing down on them.

Frieza slowly lowered himself to the ground in front of the robots, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

"Well, if that is quite all there is, then I guess it's time to bring this little game to an end." he began laughing manically as he spread his arms apart, hooked his hands like claws and began to slowly walk forward.

The three Titans stood up, each holding a limb or rubbing a shoulder or their face from their beatings. This was getting worse by the second. Frieza was making his way toward them and none of them had the power or skill to defeat him. At that point, all three of them had the same thought on their minds…

_Where are Robin and-_

"Leave my friends alone!"

_Starfire!_

Suddenly, a green orb of energy crashed into the ground directly in front of Frieza, kicking up dust and pulverized asphalt and covering the alien warlord in a cloud of smoke. Frieza put an arm in front of his eyes to keep the dust out of them, trying to look through the smoke and dust at a figure he now saw standing between himself and his teenage victims.

Starfire stood in front of the other Titans, her hands imbued with glowing green solar energy. She glared at Frieza with a stern expression, and prepared herself to do battle with him as soon as he was ready to defend himself. She could have attacked him now, while he was at a disadvantage, but that would have reduced her to sinking to his level, and that was not her way.

------

Slade stared at the monitors on the wall, watching the whole scene play out. He turned to Robin's bubble prison.

"Well, well, look who decided to crash the party. Seems your girlfriend is back in the game, Robin." he said with a grin behind his mask, before turning back to the screens.

Robin sneered at Slade and his comment, wondering how he could know that he and Starfire were close enough for many to unofficially consider them boyfriend and girlfriend. He then looked back at the screen himself, thankful for Starfire's return and that she seemed to be okay.

------

"Starfire! You're back! We were so worried about you." Beast Boy exclaimed, happy to see that the girl he secretly considered to be like an older sister to him was back and unharmed.

"Girl, you had us worried sick! What took you so long?! And welcome back by the way." Cyborg said, adding a slight chuckle at the end.

"Welcome back, Starfire." Raven said, a slight smile even gracing her face.

"It is good to be home again. Now, we must deal with this bully and send him back to where he belongs." she stated, taking a battle stance.

The smoke had cleared and Frieza smirked, crossing his arms. He recognized the girl in front of him as the one he had seen being dragged through the portal by the giant insect, the one he passed on his way into this dimension. Another person to "play" with.

Putting out a hand towards the Titans, Frieza said, "Take them."

Suddenly, the robots that had been behind Frieza were now at the sides of the heroes, two to each Titan. In the joy of Starfire's return, none of them had noticed the robots circling around them.

Each robot grabbed a Titan, one grabbing them around their torsos, pinning their arms at their sides and forcing them to their knees, the other grabbing them in a headlock, ready to twist their necks on Frieza's order. Frieza began laughing at how helpless the Titans looked; how shocked that only a moment ago their friend's return seemed to signal a new hope, and the next moment they were helpless once again.

Starfire attempted to break free of the grip of the Slade minions, but she had underestimated their strength. They were not as easy to dislodge from herself as they normally were. And now the one squeezing her neck, while not having cut of her air and blood circulation completely, had cut off enough to weaken her in a few seconds, and now her opportunity to summon the necessary strength was gone. Hearing her friends struggle in a similar manner, Starfire began to fret at the possibility that her return had not changed anything and that it may all end here.

And then, for the second time on what was to be one of the longest and strangest days of her life, Starfire was rescued by someone she technically should have never met at all.

A sudden swish of air and the robot around her neck was simply gone. With her breath and blood flow released, she gasped for fresh air and raised her eyes in time to see the robot that Trunks had kicked away from her smash into the wall of a building on the other side of the street. The mech crashed right through the wall and continued on for an unknown distance.

Hovering about a foot feet off the ground, Trunks turned his head back to sneer at the robot that had pinned Starfire down. Not even turning around, Trunks stuck out his elbow and cracked it against the robot's face-plate. The force tore the robot's head from its body and sent the whole body of the thing sailing away, crashing into a car parked far down the street.

Freed from the grip of her attackers, Starfire looked up at Trunks hovering just above her.

"Thank you Trunks." she said to him with a smile, grateful for his rescue once again. Trunks turned around in the air to face her, his mouth turned up into a smile as well.

"Happy to help." he said to her.

Raven gasped, startled, as Goten suddenly appeared next to her and pulled the robot that had her arms pinned at her sides away from her.

"Bye bye!" he said, and pulling back his fist, he punched the thing and sent it flying into one of the buildings on the side of the street she was closest to. The robot holding her neck let go and turned to face Goten.

The boy smiled at it, then dropped to the ground, putting one hand against the street. He then swept out with his left leg and kicked the robot's feet out from under it. In the split second between the time that the robot's feet left the ground and before its body could fall to the asphalt, in the split second that the thing was hanging in the air, Goten was back on his feet and swung down with his right elbow. He hit the robot in the abdominal region, crushing the systems inside that operated its legs and sending it to the ground faster than gravity was making it fall. After it was lying on the ground, Goten flipped into the air and came down with both feet on the robot's chest, crushing its entire torso.

Raven just stared at all this, stunned. Where did this little boy come from? Who was he, and how the heck had he been able to do that?

Marron flew up behind the robot that held Beast Boy's neck and slapped it on the shoulder, spinning it around to face her.

"Hey!" she shouted at it, before punching it in the chest with her left fist. The minion was picked up by the force and went sailing down the street. No one knew where it landed.

The robot that held Beast Boy's torso let him go and moved around him, as Marron drew back and landed on the ground. The robot charged at the little nine-year-old, her youth not registering in its systems as any reason for restraint.

Marron jumped forward and put out a hand. She let her body dive toward the ground and place her hand against the hard asphalt. Then, like a gymnast, the little noseless blonde girl swung her legs up into the air, drawing one leg in close to her body and leaving the other one out in a kicking position. As the robot bent down to grab her, its metal chin met Marron's kicking foot. The robot was knocked a good fifty feet into the air.

Flipping forward, completing her one-handed cartwheel, Marron landed on her feet again and watched as the robot fell back to earth. Before it could hit the ground in front of her, Marron jumped into the air with a spinning back kick.

"Hee-yah!" she shouted as she kicked the robot again in mid-air. It was launched forward, crashing into the same building that Trunks had sent his first robot into.

Beast Boy stood up, amazed at the show that this little girl had just put on.

"Whoa!" he said in astonishment.

With the robots holding him having their attention drawn elsewhere, Cyborg thrust out with his arms and practically threw the robots off of him. They both stepped back, each one on either side of Cyborg. Using an old Three Stooges technique, Cyborg stuck out both of his elbows, hitting the robots in their abdominal regions. The two robots doubled over from the impact, and as they did, Cyborg brought his fists up to connect with their metal faces. Then, as their bodies snapped back, he put a hand on the back of either robot's head and brought them together, crashing them into one another and damaging some of the main systems inside. With a crackle and a little smoke, both robots fell to the ground as Cyborg smirked and dusted his hands off.

"Boo-yah." he said, feeling better at last.

Starfire stood up and faced her friends. "You are all unharmed?" she asked them, concerned.

Beast Boy answered. "We're a little bruised, but we'll be fine Star. But who are the new kids?" he asked, glancing around at the young ones who had come to their rescue. They were odd but cute looking children; a boy with purple hair, a boy who's hair stood out in all directions, and a girl without a nose. And boy, were they strong!

"These are my new friends." Starfire answered, before turning back to face Frieza. "But we shall have the introductions later." she said seriously, gathering more of her energy in her hands. Trunks and Goten stepped forward and stood between the Titans and Frieza. Marron stayed back, but off to the side a little, ready to dive in if her two male companions needed any assistance.

Frieza had stood watching the whole thing with a sense of amazement and dread. He knew the kind of strength and skill it required to perform the feats he had just witnessed. His universe was full of beings who could have done such things. But now, he stood with his arms uncrossed and held at his side in an uncertain manner, his jaw dropped, as he looked upon the three small saviors of the Teen Titans. And he felt a mixture of shock, anger… and fear.

Staring at Trunks, Frieza's memories went back to a time, many years ago, when a face identical to the one he was looking at now had been the last thing he'd seen before being cut in half with a long, incredibly sharp sword.

"You!" he shouted at Trunks in disbelief. Trunks only grinned.

"Yeah, me. We've never met personally, but I know you met the other me, the one from the future. Didn't work out so well for you, did it?" Trunks asked, mocking his father's old master.

Frieza then looked at Goten and felt the fear again. That face too! So familiar, unmistakable. The face that represented his first defeat on Planet Namek; the face that had caused him to feel pain and fear and shame for the first time.

"You!" he shouted at Goten. Goten nodded, but did not smile, keeping a serious expression.

"You fought my dad and brother, and hurt them bad. You just don't learn, do you?" Goten said to his family's old enemy.

Finally, Frieza looked at the young girl. There were more differences here, but there was no mistaking that lack of a nose, and those eyes. They were of a different color, but the shape of the eyes was the same. The last time he had seen this face, was right before he had destroyed it in an explosion on Namek… his final act of murder.

"And you!" he shouted at Marron. Marron simply prepared a battle stance, in case Trunks and Goten let her have a piece of the action to come.

"That's right. My name is Marron. You killed my father. Prepare to die." she said in a serious tone.

Frieza actually took a step back. All these familiar and damnable faces, here! Back to get him once again! But then, after a moment to calm down a little, Frieza made the connection. These were only children. They may have looked like their fathers, but they were not their fathers. And that leading boy, Trunks his name was if what Cell told him was true, was not the one from the future, the one who'd had many years to attain his huge power.

These were just little kids. He had killed many kids before on many worlds. He would kill these ones now, and enjoy every moment of it, for what their families had done to him. Smirking, Frieza straightened himself up again.

"So, the legacy of the Saiyans pursues me even here. Well, I guess I'm just going to have to squash this wretched bloodline here and now, once and for all. Nothing is going to stop me from creating my new empire in this dimension! This whole universe is ripe for the taking, and all who live in it shall fear the name Frieza!" Concluding this little speech, Frieza dropped into a fighting stance. "And I'll not have you little brats standing in my way as your parents did once before." he finished.

With that, Frieza began to summon the fullness of his power, once the greatest in an entire universe. Pink, purple and gold energy surrounded his body, flowing like fire. Everything from pebbles to parked cars began to levitate into the air and slowly circle around him. The very asphalt of the street he stood on cracked and began to cave in under him, creating a crater that widened with his aura. Pink electrical charges crackled along his body. Frieza's roar as he summoned his energy echoed through the streets. The people who were hiding in the buildings in the area could feel their hair standing on end.

Cyborg's electronic eye scanned Frieza as he powered up, and Cyborg couldn't believe it. The energy readings coming from the alien were like those that traveled along the nervous system in a living body, a person's own electrical charged, only it appeared to be multiplied a million times over!

Raven did not like what she was sensing either. The well of power coming from Frieza battered her mind, and she knew that the alien tyrant could have blown the whole planet into ashes in an instant if he so chose. What could they do against a force of that kind?

Beast Boy's animal senses were going nuts. His ears, nose, the hairs on the back of his neck, all of them were letting him know that bad news was coming.

"Gah! Why didn't someone tell me he had a nuclear power plant up his sleeve?" Beast Boy cried out.

Starfire was also concerned with this display. While she may have been able to take Frieza on in a battle of pure physical strength, her starbolts were no match for this level of energy.

Trunks and Goten looked at each other and grinned. Then they turned to look back at Frieza and began to slowly raise their own powers.

Frieza's mad howling came to a halt as he witnessed the spectacle before him. The expressions of the Titans were equally shocked. First, the boys' hair began to spike up. After a moment, their eyes changed color, both gaining an emerald green color to their irises. Then their hair suddenly seemed to catch fire as a blondish gold hue covered their hair. Their voices began to rise with their own summoned power, craters forming in the street below them and even more debris lifting up and circling around them than there was around Frieza. Windows on buildings around them began to shatter, and arcs of electricity flashed out from the boys and danced along the surfaces of the buildings closest to them.

Frieza's jaw was as low as it could go, his eyes as wide as dinner plates. The same could be said of the Titans, but their expressions were like that out of shock; Frieza held this expression out of sheer terror. Super Saiyans! Both of these little brats were Super Saiyans! That changed everything. The nightmare had come again; _his_ nightmare.

------

Slade watched the monitors, the scanners displaying the energy readouts from the two boys on the screen, right next to their images. Slade's eye narrowed and beneath his mask, his brow furrowed.

"Hmmm, interesting. Your precious Starfire seems to have brought some new friends." he said to Robin. "The readings coming from them are higher than any I have recorded before. How unique. Look at the way Frieza is shaking. He recognizes them… and he's afraid. This may change things." he said aloud.

Robin sneered at him, then turned back to the screens as well, wondering just what was going on out there.

_Who are those kids?_

------

Starfire watched as the two boys stood before Frieza, glowing with a golden energy that stirred the air, making her hair flow behind her. The other Titans were gathered around her, watching in equal shock and wonderment.

Before they had returned to her dimension, when they had all sat down in Trunks' home and told some of their stories, she had been told about the Super Saiyan. A legendary fighting form, attainable only by members of the boys' ancestral saiyan race, or half-human half-saiyan hybrids like them. Now she was seeing it before her, and felt awed. Her own species, the Tamaranians, were a warrior culture. But their fighting spirit was not nearly as developed as these saiyans.

Knowing that Starfire was watching, as well as the other Titans, Trunks wanted to make this look as good as possible. Pointing at his enemy, he spoke.

"Alright Frieza. Time for you to go back to Hell. You can either come with us quietly back to our own dimension and let us drop you off at King Yemha's place, or you can go the painful way. The same way you got there the first time. Your choice." he stated, giving Frieza his ultimatum.

Frieza stood shaking a moment longer, then snarled in rage. He would not show fear or weakness to this group of children. Even if they were Super Saiyans, these boys were not nearly as experienced as he was, and he'd had years to increase his power in Hell. He'd eliminate them here and now, then finish with the Titans at his leisure.

Besides, he knew Slade was watching. He could not show any weakness or hesitation, or Slade would not hesitate to undermine him and their agreement.

Regaining his fighting stance, Frieza faced the boys down.

"Well then, lets see what you kids have got. Its time for your spanking!" he shouted.

Goten cringed at Frieza's lame taunt. "Oh man. Did our dad's really have a problem with this guy? He looks and sounds so stupid. Let's take care of him fast so we don't have to be embarrassed about it Trunks." he said to his friend.

Trunks nodded, and smirked like his father. "Right." he said.

In the next second, Trunks had covered the distance between himself and Frieza, slamming his right fist into the alien's stomach. Frieza doubled over, gasping for air and from the pain. Trunks removed his fist and backhanded him with his left hand. Frieza flew back down the street, tearing away a stoplight and knocking a parked car onto the sidewalk.

Frieza came to an abrupt stop as his back hit Goten's elbow, causing his body to double over backwards. Goten withdrew his arm and kicked Frieza at the base of his sinewy tail, causing Frieza to fly forward again, back towards the group of young heroes.

Seeing a chance to hurt their new enemy at last, Raven stepped past Trunks and raised her hands, her eye's glowing white with black bolts of electricity crackling from them.

"Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos!" she shouted, firing an electrical arc of dark energy from her hands like a battering ram. Stepping forward next to her, Cyborg fired with his sonic cannon.

"Boo-yah!" he shouted, delighted to put some hurt on the alien himself.

"Huuaaah!" Starfire bellowed, firing a strong beam of her starbolts as well. All three blasts of different kinds of energy hit Frieza right in the purple spot on his chest, propelling him backwards once again, and also upward at a forty-five degree angle.

The alien warlord smashed through an advertisement sign on the roof of one of the lower buildings, and continued to be propelled backwards, before finally slamming into the side of a tall building. Frieza's body caused the wall to cave in enough to form a dent the shape of his body, holding him in place.

"Alright! Nice shootin'!" Beast Boy congratulated his teammates before turning into a chimpanzee and started pumping his fist. "Ooo! Ooo! Ooo!"

The haze before his eyes clearing, Frieza slowly pulled himself from the building wall. He hovered in the air, looking at his young nemeses over a block away.

Trunks crossed his arms. "That enough for you Frieza? You give up?" he shouted out at him.

Things had changed so quickly, it was beyond frustrating. Now how would his plan work? He couldn't beat even one of those saiyan brats, let alone two of them and a whole group of well trained teenaged superheroes backing them up. He needed to retreat back to Slade's lair. Slade was a cunning warrior, lacking in powers beyond enhanced strength, yet having all kinds of devilish devices and backup plans for nearly any occasion. He would have an idea of what to do.

Turning in the direction where he knew the secret entrance to Slade's lair was, Frieza flew away as fast as he could, leaving a pink aura trail behind him for a moment.

"He is fleeing!" Starfire said in surprise. What the children had told her of their families' experience with Frieza had suggested to her that Frieza was quite aggressive. She had expected him to fight viciously against their new assembled team. But he was retreating already? Why? Cyborg came up with the answer.

"He must be heading back to get help from Slade." the eldest Titan said. Marron looked at Starfire.

"Isn't Slade the man you said was your greatest enemy?" the girl asked. Starfire nodded. She then turned to her fellow Titans.

"Tell me, has Slade made an arrangement with this Frieza?" she asked them.

Raven nodded. "Yeah, he said so. Slade lent him his minions to help him conquer the city. Then when they're done here, the whole world goes next." she said.

Starfire looked around, not seeing the one person she wanted to see again the most.

"Where is Robin? Is he unharmed?" she asked, worry creeping into her voice. Robin had been absent the entire battle.

The other Titans looked at each other, then back at Starfire, before finally looking down at their feet. Beast Boy's ears lowered.

"Star-" he began. Starfire began biting her bottom lip.

Cyborg finished. "Slade's goons took Robin. Frieza said that Slade's got him held prisoner in his lair."

Starfire gasped and took a step back in shock. Trunks and Goten powered down from Super Saiyan and began walking back to the group, their superior hearing allowing them to hear the whole conversation thus-far. Upon Starfire's reaction to the news of her friend's capture, Trunks' face also fell, not wanting to see his new friend so upset.

"We must find Robin! There is no telling what horrible things Slade and Frieza will do to him! We must go at once!" With that, Starfire turned around, reading to fly off in the same direction as Frieza, already prepared to knock the door to Slade's lair off its hinges. She was stopped by Beast Boy's hand on her shoulder.

"Whoa Star! You can't just go flying off to Slade's lair." he said to her. Starfire turned around, her face filled with momentary rage; her eyes glowed green and her teeth suddenly seemed to be as sharp as the teeth of a bear-trap.

"Why not?!" she demanded of him, causing the green teen to feel about an inch high.

"Because we don't know where Slade's lair is." Raven said, supplying the logic and reason of the group.

This caused Starfire to calm down considerably. Raven was right. She had no idea where to begin looking for Robin. Her concern over the abduction of their leader had caused her to act without having any real plan as to what she was going to do, her heart overriding her head. She did that very often, usually causing others to think that she was not as intelligent as she truly was.

She could not afford to be that way now. Robin's life was in danger, their greatest enemy had joined forces with a being more powerful than her team had ever encountered before (with the exception of Trigon perhaps), a plan was being hatched to enslave the earth, the city she now called home could be destroyed in the process of trying to save it, and to top it all off, she had to make sure to get the children home safe.

There was too much responsibility on her shoulders now to let her feelings get ahead of her judgment. For once, she had to limit how much she felt and start thinking clearly about her actions in the trials that now lay ahead.

"You are right. We must form a plan to locate Slade's lair, rescue Robin, and defeat Frieza. He must be returned to his own realm before unfixable damage is done to our own." she said, clenching her fists, feeling extreme anger inside for what Frieza had done. His coming here had allowed Slade to separate her and Robin once again, and this time, she might literally have to fight through hell to get him back. She was prepared to do that, but she was indeed very displeased with the white and purple alien that had caused all this chaos.

Beast Boy saw an opportunity to cheer Starfire up again.

"Well hey, I'm sure it'll be no problem, with these little guys you brought with you helping us out." he said grinning, turning attention back to the three children standing around them.

Starfire's mouth dropped open. She had completely forget in all of this that her new young friends had yet to be introduced to the Titans.

"My apologies, I forgot the introductions. Friends, these are Trunks, Goten and Marron," she said, pointing out the respective children. "They are my companions from the dimension I was pulled into earlier. They are here to help apprehend Frieza and return him to his realm." she informed the team.

The kids waved at the Titans shyly, Goten even blushing a little. Beast Boy stuck out his hand and gently shook with each of the children in turn. Cyborg also stepped forward and put out his hand.

"Nice to meet y'all." he said. He shook Trunks' hand.

"Whoo. That's quite a handshake you got there, little man!" he said, smiling. Trunks smiled back.

"Thanks. I'm the strongest boy in my universe." he stated matter-of-factly Cyborg's eyes went wide.

"Is that so? Well, it sure will be interesting fighting next to you." He then turned to Goten.

"Goten, right? Wow, your grip is almost as strong as his." he said. Goten grinned.

"Thanks. My dad's the greatest champion in the world where I come from!" he said gleefully. Cyborg was again impressed. He then turned to Marron and chuckled as he shook her little hand.

"How about you, little lady? What's your story?" he said with a smile. Marron smiled back.

"I'm a cyborg like you!" she said happily. Cyborg's eyes went wide again.

"Say what?!" he said, shocked. He then scanned the girl with his cybernetic eye. Indeed, the readings he got showed that she was partly mechanized. Not nearly as much as he was though. She had a few wires going here and there in her body, a few gears and some kind of small generator that seemed to only function as a backup to her heart, but beyond that, the rest of her was human. But there was something odd; none of the mechanized parts of her seemed to have been placed there from outside her body. It was as if they had always been there, naturally.

"How did you become a cyborg?" he asked her. Marron answered him.

"My mom was made a cyborg a long time ago, even at the cellular level." she said, seeming a bit confused by the words "cellular level" as if she didn't quite know what that meant. Understandable, considering that she was only nine years old.

"When she was pregnant with me, some cyborg pieces were placed in me too. I was born like this." she informed him. Cyborg looked shocked for a third time.

"You're a natural-born cyborg?!" he said, not believing it, yet seeing it to be true. Marron nodded, confirming this.

"Well, this is all really… weird." Raven stated.

Goten giggled. "Trunks and me are half human and half saiyan. The saiyans were the strongest fighter race in the universe." he said proudly. Trunks also grinned at this.

"Yeah, all of our dads have fought Frieza before. That's why we came, so we could finish the family business in a way." he said, chuckling. Starfire smiled at them.

Beast Boy's eyes were wide now. "So, you guys are half alien?!" he asked. They nodded. Beast Boy grabbed his head.

"Too weird!" he exclaimed.

"And I have told them about us." Starfire said, letting her teammates know that the children had been brought up to speed about how it was in this dimension.

Trunks nodded. "Cyborg's half robot, Raven's half demon, Beast Boy can turn into any animal, Starfire is an alien princess, and you're friend Robin is a normal human who's got abnormal fighting abilities. Gotcha." he said.

Raven nodded. "So, we all know each other now, who we are fighting, and what we need to do." she said.

The group of seven young heroes looked around at each other. A red-haired fifteen-year-old Tamaranian princess, a purple-haired eleven-year-old human/saiyan hybrid, an eighteen-year old African-American cyborg, a spiky-haired ten-year-old human/saiyan hybrid, a fourteen-year-old half-demon empath, a noseless nine-year-old natural-born cyborg, and a green-skinned thirteen-year-old changeling.

Facing off against an alien from another dimension who was technically supposed to be dead, and a beta-human criminal mastermind with several hidden plans and agendas.

Ready to attempt the rescue of their solely human but hardly helpless leader and to send the alien villain back to his dimension and his afterlife.

All here, now, in one place, at one time. They all looked around in amused disbelief at the circumstances that had led to this point.

Finally, Trunks shook his head, shrugged, and said, "Well, this is the coolest thing that's ever happened."

* * *

That's all for this chapter. I am going to attempt to get a couple more chapters done in my other major fic before updating this one again, but don't worry, as this project is my most ambitious and I will continue it for as long as it takes until it is finished. Those of you who have read this far, please review. See you next time! 


	8. Chapter 5

**The Coolest Thing To Happen: **

**The Teen Titans/DragonBall Z Crossover**

**By **

**Teen Tyrant**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

xxxxx**  
**

**Titan World**

xxxxx**  
**

"We'll have six pizzas. Two all meat specials, one vegetarian, one plain cheese and two pepperoni." Cyborg said to the waitress.

The group was at the Titans' favorite pizza restaurant, the one shaped like a slice of pizza. Since the Titans had not had a chance for breakfast that morning thanks to Killer Moth, and Trunks and Goten's monstrous Saiyan appetites were already talking, it was decided that before going to search for Slade's new lair, a big brunch for everyone was required.

Starfire predictably objected, stating that the search for the lair (and Robin) needed to begin _immediately_. But her teammates remained calm and reasonable, pointing out that they would need to eat and regain their energy before charging off for what was sure to be one of the hardest battles they would ever fight. Although reluctant, Starfire realized the logic in the statement and gave in.

The waitress, a pretty young brunette with her hair done up in a ponytail, nodded as she wrote down the order on her pad. Then she placed the pad and pencil in her pocket and placed her hands on the table, looking around at the Titans and the three cute little kids that were with them.

"Listen guys, everyone here is pretty nervous about what people are saying on the street. They say there's some new villain in town and that some extreme stuff is going down. That swirly light in the sky and then the explosions a few blocks over. Nobody's freaking yet, but they're not too far off. Frankly, I'm a bit nervous myself. Is any of it true?" she asked.

The Titans took a breath and nodded.

"Yeah," Cyborg said, "It's true. Some crazy stuff is going on and it's probably gonna get worse. Tell everyone you know to stay off the streets. In fact, as soon as our order is in, you might want to tell your coworkers and customers to get outta town for a few days. We don't know how bad it's gonna be or how long it's gonna take for us to settle this one."

The girl's eyes were as wide as they could go. She nodded nervously, then went back inside, leaving the young heroes on the second floor balcony. Trunks turned to look up at Cyborg.

"That's probably not going to be enough, you know. There's a good chance that some major portions of the Earth could be fried. Frieza might even try to blow up the planet if he feels he's going to lose. He's done it before." the boy said, gravely.

"We know." Raven said. "We just want to try and keep people as calm as we can. It helps if they think there is somewhere they can go to reach safety. There's no sense in letting a panic get started."

Trunks shrugged. He turned to Goten and Marron in the seats next to him.

"If Frieza does try to blast the whole planet, we're going to have to do whatever it takes to stop him. Goten, you and I are the only ones stronger than Frieza, so next time he shows his ugly face, you and I attack him right away. Got it?"

Goten nodded in understanding.

"Take him down as quick as we can. Got it."

"I just hope I get to fight a little." Marron said. "I've never been in a real fight before. I didn't even know how to fight when Majin Buu showed up, and this is my chance to be a warrior too!" She formed her small hands into tight little fists, excitement and anxiousness in her voice. The others smiled at her.

"You'll get your chance for a fight, Marron. I mean, you already did a good job with those robots." Trunks said with encouragement.

A smile appeared on Starfire's face, which had been missing its signature smile since learning that Robin had been captured.

"Indeed Marron, you shall have a chance to prove yourself in battle. Your first encounter with Slade's minions has already shown the potential within you." she complimented the girl. Marron began to blush from the praise.

"Aww, thanks Trunks. Thanks Starfire." she said shyly. Starfire continued to smile at her new young friend's bashfulness.

"It is true, Marron. You remind me of myself when I was very small. I too was eager to show that I was ready to be a warrior. You are just as I was then, or like a little sister that I might have had." Starfire chimed. Marron blushed even more. Trunks and Goten tried not to laugh.

"So tell me little guys," Beast Boy began. "You really think you can take Frieza? I mean, he took us out easy, he's blown up whole planets and he's dealing with Slade. Seems pretty bleak to me."

Trunks looked over to the green teenager with confidence.

"I know that Goten and I can take him. We're Super Saiyans, and we're stronger than Goten's dad was when he first became one, and he was able to beat Frieza at that level. I'm sure Frieza's been training in Hell, but he's not a Saiyan, so his power isn't going to be that much greater than when he was alive."

Beast Boy still didn't look convinced.

"Yeah, but he's working with Slade on this one. We've all dealt with Slade before and we know for a fact that he doesn't fight fair. I don't think it's going to be so simple." he stated gravely. Trunks didn't have any comment on that.

"No matter what deal they've made with each other, it all hinges on Frieza's willingness to accept Slade's assistance. Frieza's power is going to be at the center of any offensive strategy they use." Raven said, informing the others of what she had already realized.

"We've already seen an example of it with Slade's robots back there. They were much stronger than we've ever seen them because of Frieza's power. Somehow, Slade charged them with it. Who knows what else he'll be able to do as long as Frieza chooses to work with him. If we can take Frieza out, we'll be able to handle Slade as we've always done, especially if we can do it before he's borrowed huge portions of Frieza's energy."

The others around the table nodded at the wisdom of Raven's words, knowing that she was very correct.

xxxxx

"I can't believe this is happening! Those damned Saiyan brats have followed me here! How could this happen? I can't ever get away from these cursed Saiyans!"

Frieza was pacing back and forth in front of the monitors in Slade's layer. The many screens kept replaying the whole incident over and over with certain screens showing a different aspect of the battle. One showed the swiftness with which the three children had defeated Slade's minions; another showed Trunks and Goten powering up and the stats on the energy output they gave off; another still showed Frieza getting blasted by the two boys and then the follow-up from the Titans. Just looking at them filled Frieza with rage and embarrassment and he cursed all of their fathers for the aggravation that they continued to cause him.

Slade, for his part, remained perfectly calm and still, watching the images on the screens with an almost academic interest, as if it were a documentary about the behaviors of his favorite type of animal. It was making Frieza even more frustrated that he wasn't saying or doing anything about the situation.

Robin observed the two from the confinement of his dome, his hands pressed against the curved inner surface. He had a slight smirk, relishing how flustered Frieza had become due to his easy defeat by a pair of kids who were clearly helping his team out in his absence. He may end up being rescued sooner than he had originally thought. However, Slade's apparent calm was the one thing concerning him.

Frieza was powerful, no question; several orders of magnitude more powerful than the entire Titans team combined. He would likely be able to go toe-to-toe with Superman himself, which was likely to happen if he achieved victory here in Jump City. But despite Frieza's enormous power, it was Slade who Robin knew was ultimately the real threat.

He had convince Frieza that he would need to outthink this world's defenders rather than simply tackle them head-on with brute force. This was a very correct assessment. Already, without the rest of Earth's heroes becoming involved, Frieza's power was gaining him little in just this one city, thanks to the trio of gifted children. But Slade's cunning and intellect, while equal with Frieza's own, was already used to being physically inferior to many defenders. He relied on his wits and resources to commit his acts of evil. If Slade were to figure out a way that Frieza could defeat his team and their new allies…

Frieza suddenly stopped pacing and turned to face Slade, his tail whipping violently behind him.

"Well? Aren't you going to say something? You claim to know these Titans like the back of your hand! Don't you have any ideas on how to turn this situation back to our advantage? I can't battle two Super Saiyans _and_ worry about the Titans at the same time!" Frieza raged.

Slade still held his calm and did not turn away from the screens to look at Frieza, but still answered him.

"Keep your head cool, Frieza. We haven't even begun to unleash the true potential of our alliance." the cycloptic man said.

Frieza frowned in confusion and frustration.

"What do you mean by that?" he demanded.

Slade finally turned to face him.

"Passing some of your energy into that group of robots was merely a test. I needed to know for certain if I would be able to harness the energy you gave and use it to our advantage. Now I know that I can, and that is where the answer lies."

He walked around Frieza and to the door on the far wall. This was where he had told Frieza that he had a stockpile of various weapons and other nasty technological marvels. Curious despite the situation, Frieza followed.

Entering the room, Frieza saw that it was a pretty large area, like the hanger that his various spacecraft used to be stored in at his old base. It was very dark and although lights came on automatically, they only came on directly above Slade, lighting the space he was currently occupying and the space directly in front of him, while the space he just left as he walked forward went dark the moment he stepped away. It was as if the lights were following him. Because of this, Frieza could see very little of what the room contained, but he could make out the hulking forms of large machines, vaguely humanoid in shape, suggesting that it was an inactive army of robots, as well as other weapons and vehicles here and there, judging by the dark shapes.

Frieza followed Slade nearly to the very back of this chamber, until Slade stopped at a metal desk that seemed to be used as a work station. Upon it, various tools and devices were scattered. Reaching down, Slade picked up one particular piece of equipment. It was a metal ring, about four inches wide and half an inch thick, with the hole in the middle looking just wide enough to fit an arm through. The outer edge appeared to have lights and some digital displays that were currently dark, since the device did not appear to be active. To Frieza, it looked like some type of bracelet.

"This, Frieza, is how you will defeat the Titans and those children they brought with them." Slade said to him. Flicking a small, almost invisible switch along the inner edge of the device, the lights and displays turned on, glowing a cool blue.

"What is it?" Frieza asked, genuinely interest.

"It is a power amplifier." Slade explained. "When attuned to an individual's particular energy signature generated by their nervous system, it can heighten a normal person's strength, speed and endurance nearly five-fold."

Slade stuck his foot under the desk and put its weight down on something hidden beneath it. Sliding his foot back out, he brought with it what looked almost like a satellite dish, but was triangular instead of round. It had the same type of stem coming out of its center that a normal dish would use as a transmitter, but Frieza did not think that this was the device's function.

Slade slipped the metal ring over the top of the stem and knelt down to push a button under the edge of the dish. A high-pitched whine filled the room for an instant, and then Frieza's ears adjusted and it was gone.

"It is charging now. It will probably be some time before it is ready. An hour or two, maybe even more. But once it is ready, you will be able to wear this amplifier in battle against the Titans and the Saiyans. Based off of the readings I took during their transformation, you should be able to defeat those two boys even at Super Saiyan strength level."

After saying this, Slade stood up, turned towards another wall on the far left side of the room and walked on, the light above them going off as Slade stepped away. In spite of the darkness, Frieza stared down at the charging amplifier bracelet a moment longer.

This was why he had decided to go against his own nature and play things small and slow at first instead of just blasting away at this planet as he would have in the good old days. Slade had known something like this would happen and he'd been ready for it. In a few hours, Frieza would be able to augment his power higher than he'd ever had it before. And he had not even been up to one hundred percent of his maximum power before. He'd been at around sixty percent of his power when those brats had shown up and the ease with which they defeated him told him that even charging up to his pinnacle level would not have changed the outcome and it would only have put him at risk of destroying his body with the output of power.

But, if he were to use this amplifier even at sixty percent of power, never mind his maximum, the possibilities were endless. Things were changing very fast, what with his arrival in this world, his alliance with Slade, the appearance of the children of his old enemies and then his swift defeat, all within a mere handful of hours. He did not want to jump the gun again and begin seeing victory in this bracelet already, but he could not help but imagine the tide turning back to his favor once again before the end of this most interesting day.

And then, once he had defeated the Saiyans, the Titans, and used Slade's knowledge of the rest of this world's defenders to defeat them… well then, he wouldn't need Slade anymore.

Turning around, Frieza followed the light source in the distance until he found Slade standing near the far wall. Coming to a stop and standing next to him, Frieza found himself facing three large glass tubes set into the wall. Each tube was at least twenty feet tall. The one to his far left was filled with granite, the one in the center was filled with a clear liquid that seemed to be some kind of nutrient solution, and the one on the right was flashing and crackling with a constant flow of electrical power. Within the center tube, the silhouette of a human could be seen floating in the liquid, while the tube on the right had some sort of small square object suspended in a bubble of static.

"What are these?" Frieza asked.

"A diversion, to keep our enemies busy while the amplifier charges." said Slade.

Written at the bottom of each tube, where the glass was set into metal, was a name: Cinderblock on the left, Plasmus in the middle, Overload on the right.

"I'll need to borrow some more of your power, Frieza," Slade said, "And I'd like you to tell me everything you know about those children who were helping the Titans."

xxxxx

Cyborg, Raven, Beast Boy and even Marron, who had seen this several times before, all watched in awe and not a little disgust as Starfire, Trunks and Goten ate the pizzas that had arrived only a few moments before. The four of them had managed to grab their pieces, four for Cyborg and two for the others, each of their respective favorite pizza types. Then, the remaining three proceeded to eat all the remaining slices of all six pizzas at an alarming rate, wolfing down entire slices as if they were going to run away from them.

Trunks and Goten, being half Saiyan, always ate this way, as Saiyans possessed appetites that went far beyond anything a human could experience and seemed to have black holes inside their bellies instead of stomachs. Starfire, being Tamaranian, actually had nine stomachs and so could consume gigantic quantities of food herself with an almost savage look on her face as she did so. The Titans had only seen her eat this way once before and it was not a sight they welcomed. Marron had seen her two best friends eat this way for years but it still nearly took away from her own appetite.

At one point as the three consumed the food, Starfire and Goten both reached for the same piece of pizza at the same time, their hands hitting each other as they made to grab the slice. For a moment, the two glared and each other with animal ferocity flaring up in their eyes. Then recognition set in and the two laughed for a moment before Starfire yielded and allowed Goten to claim the piece.

If anyone had been looking at Trunks for the brief moment that this exchange took place, it would have appeared to them that Trunks seemed to lean slightly closer to Starfire and glare at Goten with that same animal ferocity. However, no one had been looking at him.

Within roughly a minute and a half, all of the pizza was gone except for the slices that the four onlookers still had on their plates, untouched. Trunks and Goten patted their bellies, smiling with contentment. Starfire looked at her staring friends and was puzzled.

"Friends, are you not also going to partake of the delicious pizza?" she asked.

The four others realized that they had not yet taken a single bite and decided that since the three overeaters were now satisfied, for the moment anyway, it was safe to begin enjoying their own lunch. They ate much slower, enjoying their food and allowing their bodies to absorb the energy given by the sustenance at a gradual pace, so that the few slices that they were each able to grab before the rest of it began disappearing would be sufficient to prepare them for the struggles ahead.

Raven was the last to finish her meal and once she had done so, the seven young people sat back in silence, each thinking to themselves what they could contribute to a plan of action to rescue Robin and take the fight to Frieza and Slade on their own terms, rather than the villains'.

Once the waitress that had served them had returned to collect their plates, was given payment by Cyborg with an extra tip and an additional warning to leave Jump City soon, everyone leaned in to discuss what they were going to do.

"Alright," Cyborg began, "We need to get going on a rescue mission for Robin. Anybody got any ideas of where we start?"

Starfire opened her mouth to speak her opinion, but before she could utter a word there was a low rumble that echoed across the city; the familiar sound of a building collapsing.

The teens and kids immediately jumped out of their chairs and ran to the railing of the pizza parlor's 2nd floor balcony, looking across town where the sound had emanated from and a cloud of dust could now be seen gathering.

"What was that?" Trunks asked, looking between Starfire and Cyborg, on either side of him, for an explanation. It hadn't sounded like an explosion; he was familiar with the sound that would make. This had sounded more like several tons of construct had simply collapsed in on itself… or been toppled over.

"I don't know, but it came from downtown near the park." Cyborg said, scanning in that direction with his eye.

Now they could see people running down the street in their direction. At first it was only a handful, but after a few moments it became a multitude, dozens turning to hundreds as people desperately tried to put distance between themselves and whatever had caused the disturbance.

"We'd better check this out first." Raven said. "I'm pretty sure we know who's behind this."

Beast Boy nodded to her assessment.

"Dude, if Frieza or Slade just trashed the video store, they are so going to be feeling tiger fangs on their-"

"This is no time to be making the jokes, Beast Boy." Starfire said, calmly but firmly, and Beast Boy shut up.

Stafire and Raven took to the air first, with Trunks, Marron and Beast Boy following directly behind them. Goten took a second to grab Cyborg by the top of the shoulders and the he too began to fly after the group with the large Titan in tow.

The group flew toward the spot where the cloud of dust, only barely beginning to dissipate, was located, each preparing themselves for the fight they suspected was ahead. Starfire in particular was eager to battle, not caring whether it was Frieza or Slade who was causing this latest commotion, but ready to throttle either by their slimy, evil neck with her bare hands and make them tell her where Robin was. Arriving shortly at the scene and keeping beyond the edge of the cloud of dust, the group looked down to behold the sight.

It was the video store that the Titans rented from when they had movie nights. Although not a large building as it had only one floor, any collapsed structure of sufficient size could create a rumble like the one they had all felt and kick up enough dust to sustain a cloud as noticeable as the one overhead. The building had more or less imploded on itself, and the reason why was very obvious.

Standing in the debris, having clearly pushed the small building over, were three monsters that the four Titans knew very well. Each were somewhere between twelve and fifteen feet tall and about six feet wide. One was made of plain grey stone and had glowing red eyes. Another was compose of dripping purple sludge and had large green blister-like eyes on the top of its head, positioned just above its large, gaping mouth. The third was made primarily of sparking blue electrical charge surrounding a black inner framework, with a glowing red object like a computer motherboard in the center of its "head", slightly resembling a face. These creatures were Cinderblock, Plasmus and Overload, three monsters that the Titans had faced early on in their careers as a team and who each apparently lived for the sole purpose of creating random mayhem around the city, whenever they were not doing Slade's bidding.

"Uh, what are those things?" Trunks asked, voicing the question all three children were thinking.

"Troublemakers." Raven answered him. "Very large and annoying troublemakers."

Goten set Cyborg on the roof of a building across the street from the scene and Beast Boy landed next to him, changing back to human form.

"Man! Did they have to destroy the video store?" the green Titan complained.

Cyborg quickly scanned the three monsters.

"I think we're in for more fight that usual you guys." the cybernetic teen informed the group, "I'm detecting that same energy field around them that were around Slade's robots earlier. He must have given them a dose of Frieza's power."

True enough, each of them could see a faint pinkish glow surrounding the monsters below, all of who were looking up at the group of seven and roaring a challenge to them.

Starfire narrowed her eyes at the beasts.

"This is clearly an attempt by our adversaries to delay us while they enact some counter-strategy to battle us at a later time. But we shall not play by their rules!" she announced, while the others stared at her in admiration and surprise.

Starfire had never really been one to take any sort of leadership position accept in the most dire and immediate of circumstances, such as when Robin was in imminent danger of losing his life while battling a hallucination of Slade. The other Titans were taken aback by the determination they could see in her face, while three children, not used to working with the Titans, simply waited to act upon her instructions.

"We will defeat these creatures quickly and not give any respite to them. We have no time to play games and speak to them of surrender. We shall knock them unconscious at the first available opportunity and begin our search for Slade's lair." Starfire declared.

She turned her head to look down at Cyborg on the roof below and then to Trunks, who hovered in the air next to her.

"Cinderblock is physically the strongest. Therefore, Cyborg and Trunks will battle him. Goten, you and I shall challenge Plasmus, as I know from experience that he is vulnerable to my starbolts. Raven and Marron shall defeat Overload. Beast Boy, you shall stand ready in case any one of us is injured so that you may take up position and resume the attack. Also, you must keep your senses open in case of a surprise attack by any Slade minions." she commanded to the team.

All six nodded, none questioning her orders, however, Cyborg turned to look to Marron overhead, hovering next to Raven.

"Marron, try to avoid Overload hitting you with his electric attacks. You don't have a lot of cybernetic parts, but the ones you do have may still be vulnerable." he warned the demi-cyborg, and the little girl nodded down to him.

"Thanks, Cyborg. I'll be careful." she said.

The three monsters below took up positions next to each other and assumed fighting postures. They were ready.

Starfire's eyes narrowed even further and glowed green.

"Attack!" she shouted and zoomed straight toward Plasmus, shooting starbolts at him in a wave, Goten flying at her heels. Hole after smoking hole was blown in the purple ooze creature, who roared in rage and pain at the attack. He attempted to slurp himself back into a whole form again, but had difficulty as Goten unleashed a shock wave of kinetic force from his palm. He used no direct energy, as Starfire's own starbolts seemed to get that job done well enough, but the blast of mental energy he applied created a near-gale force wind, blowing Plasmus back, causing small pieces of his whole to fling away and making the reassembly of his slimy pieces nearly impossible.

Raven and Marron flew down to Overload, who immediately fired a blast of electrical current at them. Raven put up a shield of dark energy between them, the electrical blast fizzing out harmlessly over its surface. She then allowed a small hole to open in the shield and Marron immediately fired an energy blast of her own through it. While Marron's energy attacks were like insect bites compared to what Trunks and Goten could accomplish, they were still quite powerful and even fatal to average mortals. As such, the impact of the blast still had a significant effect on the energy creature, as Overload was hit in the chest region and began to flash like a strobe light, a sign of injury on the part of the energy beast.

Cyborg jumped from the roof he'd been set down on and ran at Cinderblock, firing his sonic cannon at the concrete creature's face. Cinderblock put up his powerful arms to keep the blast from hitting him there and charged as well, meeting Cyborg at the outer rim of the pile of rubble he and his partners had created from the video store.

Cyborg tackled the monster like he was playing football and managed to push the creature back a few feet, until the monster got his footing and hit Cyborg in the abdominal region with his rocky knee. Using his own considerable strength, plus the extra power bestowed onto him by Frieza, Cinderblock was able to stop Cyborg's assault faster than he normally would have done, and as Cyborg doubled over from the knee to the stomach, Cinderblock grunted in delight at his newfound strength. He then swung at Cyborg with his left fist. Cyborg ducked and the attack went over his head. He then swung upward with a punch of his own, hitting the rock beast in the face. Cinderblock immediately swung back with his left arm, trying to backhand Cyborg, who again ducked. As he did so, Cinderblock now swung his right arm down in an attempt to pound down on Cyborg. Cyborg crossed his arms in front of him as a shield, taking the fist on his forearms. Cinderblock continued to press down with his arm, forcing Cyborg to his knees as he attempted to push the arm back.

"Is that all you've got?" Cyborg taunted, though clearly struggling to hold back his adversary's fist.

Cinderblock then punched again with his left hand, this time hitting Cyborg straight on and sending him flying back. As Cyborg flew with the impact, his leg was grabbed midair by Trunks, who had been standing back, awaiting his chance to join the fight. Using Cyborg's momentum to his advantage, Trunks swung the large teen around and sent him flying right back at Cinderblock to deliver a punch straight to the stone giant's face that sounded like a mountain breaking open. Cinderblock clutched his face and stumbled back, falling to the ground.

Unable to heal or mount any type of attack due to Goten's kinetic blast and Starfire still raining a steady stream of starbolts down upon him, Plasmus finally had enough. He sunk down and flattened himself out, momentarily creating a giant puddle of sludge, and then sprung upward into the air like a fountain. He hit Starfire midair, knocking the alien girl out of the sky and drenching her in his sludge. The two crashed to the ground, and as Goten ran to Starfire's aid, Plasmus shot a glob of goo at the boy, which hit him in his legs, causing him to stumble forward and fall to the ground.

"Eeewww! This stuff is gross!" Goten whined, attempting to use his energy aura to burn the goo from his legs.

Starfire, more accustomed to being covered in Plasmus's slime, created her own bubble of energy around herself, blasting all of the goo away from her body before turning to glare in rage at Plasmus.

"I do not have the time for this!" she bellowed, shooting rapid fire starbolts at the creature as Goten righted himself and continued the rest of the way to stand at the girl's side.

"Kaaaa… meeee..." Goten began, cupping his hands at his side. A small orb of energy gathered as the boy prepared to unleash a relatively small Kamehameha Wave in an attempt to knock the creature unconscious.

Starfire continued to shoot her starbolts at Plasmus, tearing great gobs of mucus away from his body and not giving him a chance to reform as she continued to increase the magnitude of her bolts.

"Haaaa… meee… haaaa!" Goten shouted, thrusting his hands forward as a beam of bright blue/white energy shot forward and hit Plasmus head on, vaporizing half of his gelatinous body instantly and propelling his remains backward, across the empty lot that stood behind the ruined video store and against the office building on the other side. The beam tore through the building, leaving a smoking hole straight through it as the beam continued on, arching into the air and out of sight. Plasmus, now unconscious and in human form, fell to the sidewalk below.

Raven was using her dark energy to try to envelope Overload in a sphere to trap him, but his own energy output was holding her shield at bay. Marron had flown behind the monster and continued to shoot him with one energy blast after another, but she also had to dodge the creature's own electrical attacks, and due to Overload's energy nature, she would not be able to fly in and attack him physically. As a result, the two girls were making very little progress with the monster.

Beast Boy remained on the outer edges of the battle, practically hopping from foot to foot with the desire to enter the fray and help his friends. He had turned into a hound to sniff out if any sladebots were nearby waiting to attack and had also turn into an eagle to use the animal's binocular vision to see if any threats waited on the outskirts to ambush them while they fought the monster trio. There had been no sign of any other threats. However, he did not want to be the one to defy Starfire's orders while she was currently as pissed off as she was, just in case something did happen and he wasn't on standby as instructed.

However, as he watched Raven and Marron struggle with Overload, he realized how he could lend a hand without defying Starfire's orders. Turning into a cheetah, he ran quickly around the outer edge of the debris field that was all that remained of his beloved video store. Stopping after he had located what he wanted, he transformed into a gorilla and plunged his large ape hands into the rubble, pulling up a large steel beam that had been used for support of the collapsed building.

Like a javelin thrower, Beast Boy pulled back his arm and then let fly with the steal beam, which flew through the air and smacked right into and through Overload, sticking out both sides of his electrical body. With the direct contact with metal going right through him, Overload screamed out in whatever he experienced as pain and began to spark and fizzle.

Realizing what was happening and how the metal was interrupting Overload's energy conductivity, Raven actually smiled a little at Beast Boy's sudden insight and turned to give him a cursory nod. Then, focusing, she used her telekinesis to twist the beam around within Overload's body, so that it was touching every section of his electrical innards. Overload continued to scream in pain and anger as she did so.

Marron was also inspired by Beast Boy's move, remembering that in addition to metal, there was another element that electricity traveled through easily, and that the combination might be too much for the monster. Scanning the area quickly, the little girl spotted a fire hydrant only a little ways away from where the building had stood. Swooping down to it quickly, she grabbed it with her small hands and tore it straight off, sending a geyser of water into the air and soaking her as she jumped back and away as quickly as she could.

Raven used her powers again to create a solid circular surface in the air, tilted at a forty-five degree angle, right above the tower of water. When the water hit Raven's disk, it bounced off and sprayed at high speeds right at Overload.

With both water and metal coursing through his electrical body, Overload simply could handle it no more and finally fizzed out, his motherboard-like face falling to the ground as his body disappeared.

Cinderblock rose to his feet, shook his head to clear his vision and looked around to locate his target. He spotted Cyborg, also getting to his feet from he'd struck Cinderblock head-on, but now the creature spotted the small boy who had caught him flung him back to land the punch. Cinderblock clenched his fist and charged at the boy.

Trunks turned briefly to grin up at Cyborg.

"Watch this." he said simply and turned back to face the monster.

Cyborg simply crossed his arms and settled back to watch, a smile playing at his own lips and his robotic eye recording, having a feeling that this was going to be good and he'd be wanting to replay it over and over later.

Trunks stood his ground as the creature that was literally ten times his size and roughly eighty times his weight bore down on him. Cinderblock dived forward, attempting to squash the purple-haired kid with his rocky bulk, but was quite surprised when this did not happen.

Instead, Trunks put up his hands and caught Cinderblock's full weight, holding the enormous brute over his head with no more effort, it seemed, than what it would take to hold up a pillow. With a flick of his wrists, Trunks tossed Cinderblock lightly into the air in such a way that the giant flipped over and came back down, Trunks catching him on his back and holding him up again.

Trunks then used even more of his god-like Saiyan strength and this time really threw Cinderblock high, a hundred feet or more. The boy then took off from the ground with a flare of his aura and caught up with Cinderblock at the pinnacle of his ascent, flying around the beast's body so that he was directly above him and looked down into his concrete face.

Scowling in a way that would have made his father proud, Trunks put out his left hand, placing it on Cinderblock's should next to where his collarbone would have been on a normal person. The boy then pulled back his right fist and punched Cinderblock right in the face with about a quarter of his strength. The stone monster plummeted faster than gravity's pull would normally have caused and smashed down right in the center of the debris pile below.

Goten, Marron and the Titans all turned away, covering their heads with their arms to prevent dust and shrapnel from getting into their eyes. All turned to look at where Cinderblock had landed, in a crater about three times the size of his body and roughly ten feet deep. Incredibly, the stone monster opened his eyes and, with a great deal of effort that he would not have been capable of if not for Frieza's added energy, began to sit up again.

Suddenly, Trunks landed with the force of a dropped industrial safe, planting both of his booted feet right into Cinderblock's middle. The creature collapse back with a loud grunt, but after a moment, attempted once more to rise, slowly lifting his head up and glaring with red eyes at the little boy who had felled him. Trunks lifted a single foot up off of Cinderblock's stomach, so that the bottom of his boot was pointed at Cinderblock's face.

"Just stay down." he said in irritation and kicked out, leaving the patter of his boot planted on Cinderblock's face and creating a crack that ran from the bottom right corner of Cinderblock's chin to the top left corner of his head. Cinderblock was finally out cold.

Staring down at the monster for a moment longer to make sure he really wasn't going to get back up, Trunks stared around at the rest of the team. Cyborg was giving an approving smile, Marron and Raven were shaking hands and then turning to thank Beast Boy for the assistance, and Starfire and Goten were patting each other on the back for their own victory before Starfire turned to look at Trunks, still perched atop Cinderblock's fallen body, and giving him a thumbs-up. Trunks smiled back and gave his own thumbs-up in response.

Although they were a long way from finished, this particular battle was over.

* * *

I would like to say, to everybody who has ever read this story in the last five-and-a-half years and wanted more, you have no idea how terrible I feel about the extreme and completely unreasonable delay between the posting of chapter four and this posting of chapter five. Many, many things have happened to me since November of 2006, when chapter four was posted, and it was these things which ultimately led to the lack of updates. First and foremost, only a few days after I posted the last chapter, I met, for the first time in person, my girlfriend, who is now my wife. We had been speaking online for two months at that time and then met face to face later in the week from the last posting and from there I had an actual relationship for the first time in my life, and this was the main cause of the delay. In addition to that, I also became interested in many other series, the cancellation of Teen Titans was finally sinking in for me and my need to write as many stories for it as I could as soon as I could was wearing down, and although I knew where this story was going to go and more or less how it would get there, the details were difficult to work out. All of these things taken together is the reason for you having to wait so long, but I cannot thank all of you who have still been waiting enough for your patience.

Let me please make it clear, this story has not ever, not once, not for _one single day_, been forgotten or abandoned by me. The characters of Trunks and Starfire are my absolute favorite fictional characters of all time, and I think about them every day. And I mean this literally; I think about both characters EVERY DAY. Something, somehow, always brings both of them to mind, and ever since the day I came up with this story, it is impossible for me to think about one or the other and not see them interacting together somehow, which is why I began this story in the first place. So you see, in the five-and-a-half years that nothing has been done with this story, not one of the days in those years has gone by that I did not hear the voice telling me in the back of my head to continue this story. It's just been really hard, for the reasons I mentioned above, to get up the incentive and excitement to do so, since I don't feel so bored and desperate anymore. But I know that I will never be at peace until the full version of this story, my special vision, is finally written out and posted for everyone to see.

So let this be proof that no matter how long it takes between posts, this story will NEVER be abandoned by me until it is finished, or unless I die before I finish it. I am back in full fic-writing mode right now and already starting the next chapter of this, so I highly doubt that I will put you guys through another wait like the one you just went through, but now you know that no matter how long that wait might be, you'll still get the rest of this story. This is my promise. Thank you all again for your patience. I hope you enjoyed the above chapter and I'll see you at the next one.


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